dancing with you, falling for you
by fallendrastic
Summary: In which Sam needs a partner for a dance competition and Freddie seems to be the best possible candidate. After a few lessons, witty banters, petty arguments, friendship development and unexpected bonding turns into an unforgettable experience.
1. Prologue

**Hey my fellow Seddie shippers! First of all, to the readers of iGo to Italy, don't worry, just because I have a new story here does not mean I'm gonna forget about my other stories. Ladies and gentlemen, who wisely support one of the most awesome comedic ships ever I present to you, dancing with you, falling for you, in response to Smiley Face challenge.**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't. **

**Chapter 1: Prologue.**

* * *

Sam Puckett pulled the hood of her favorite checkered green and black hoodie and ran across the empty street of Garina Lane, a small lane just about five blocks away from the Bushwell Plaza, where her best friend, Carly Shay, lived. Sam walked up to two identical rusty black gates and pulled them open, she then walked in the empty junkyard and walked over to her favorite drawing wall. Sam looked to her right and, as expected, a small green box filled with colorful chalks were beside her.

The blonde bent down and grabbed a smoky light pink chalk stared at the blank orange wall, wondering what to sketch this time. Yes, Sam Puckett draws, and apparently she draws on the walls of Garina Lane's abandoned junkyard about once a week. Usually she would draw about what happened that week, lately, she hasn't been feeling inspirational lately. Inspiration usually hits her easily, like lightning, but so far, nothing.

She stared at the wall, still hoping for inspiration, but sadly, she had nothing, absolutely and utterly nothing. Hours went by and it started to get dark, the sun sat and the cold Seattle wind blew in Sam's face. Sighing, she set her chalk down and looked at the wall with crossed arms, it was still blank. She pulled the hood of her hoodie down and tucked her curly blonde hair behind her right ear and stared at her work for about half a minute before grabbing her red bag of the dusty ground.

Sam spun on her heel and silently gasped in surprise when she realized went face-to-face with Jared, the janitor. Sam had actually grown to accept him as a friend last month because he was pretty cool, for an adult. Jared raised a bushy eyebrow at her before cranking his head to take a look the blank wall, he sighed lightly and shook his head slowly.

"You still have nothing?" He asked while he jerked a garbage bag behind his left shoulder with his glove-covered hand. "Why?"

Sam sighed deeply before running her hands through her blonde hair before giving Jared a depressed look, her tone deadpan. "No inspiration."

"Again?" Jared asked in disbelief and Sam nodded while sighing with regret, she started fidgeting with her curls again. "So, what now?" Jared asked, placing his free hand on his hip.

"The Washington State Dance Competition."

Jared's mouth dropped open as he accidentally released the garbage bag he was holding over his shoulder in surprise, "You got in?" Sam nodded in confirmation, causing Jared to break into a huge a grin as he brought his hands together and clapped slowly and proudly, "good job, Sammy," he said, using his usual nickname for her.

Sam's held her hand up, "I'm not finished," she said as she crossed her arms again and raised an eyebrow at Jared, giving him an annoyed look, Jared immediately stopped clapping and nodded his head obediently, causing Sam to smile in satisfaction before continuing, "the WSDC has a grand prize of one hundred thousand dollars and a chance to dance in Hollywood—" Jared cut Sam off, "wow, Sam, that's amazing, I mean, a chance to dance in Hollywood and one hundred grand?"

Sam bit the insides of her mouth and raised an eyebrow in annoyance at Jared again, causing him to silently mutter an apology; Sam unfolded her sleeve-covered arms before continuing, "My favorite childhood dance coach, Ernie, agreed to be my partner for the competition, he's an awesome dancer, so I was pretty confident." She paused and examined Jared.

"Sounds like everything's going great," Jared said, smiling widely at her, Sam returned his smile with a fake one.

"Yeah," Sam said, trying to sound enthusiastic before changing her tone, "Until he fell off the stage and broke his leg."

Jared's green cat eyes widened as soon as those words left Sam's mouth, he placed his hand on Sam's left shoulder and shook it lightly, "Is he okay?" he asked with a trace of worry in his voice, he raised his bushy eyebrows in concern and Sam nodded lightly.

"I guess," she shrugged, "The guy's =in a leg cast, though, so now, I'm partner-less for the competition, and the dance competition is only five weeks away! So, I'm probably gonna have to drop out."

"I'm so sorry, Sammy," Jared said, sounding apologetic, Sam batted her right hand in the air as if having to drop out of the dance competition was no big deal, when in fact it _was_ a big deal, well, to her at least.

"It's cool," Sam lied, slinging her bag over her shoulder and tying her hair in a sloppy ponytail, she sighed softly and crossed her arms. "I'm fine."  
Jared raised an eyebrow in doubt before slowly shaking his head as if he knew that Sam was lying, if he did, Sam would be seriously impressed, given the fact that he had only known Sam for a month, Jared sighed heavily and picked up his dropped garbage bag, "whatever you say, Sammy," he muttered before walking away, Sam turned back to the blank wall and looked at it with sad blue eyes.

_Still no inspiration_, She thought and shook her head slowly before walking out of the junkyard. Sam opened the rusty gates and hopped into the Volkswagen her dad gave her three months ago as an apology for missing out on seven years of her life, she then looked at the junkyard again before driving off.

* * *

Carly Shay looked around the living room of her apartment with her dark hazel eyes before she stuck her manicured finger in the chocolate cake sitting on the counter, sticking it in delicious whip cream before sticking it in her cherry red lipstick coated mouth. She sucked the whip cream off her finger as Spencer Shay, Carly's wacky and childish twenty-nine year old brother, walked down the wooden stairs of the Shay apartment.

He stopped in his tracks when he noticed his little sister repeatedly scraping whip cream off his chocolate cake, he walked towards his cake and grabbed it off the counter, causing Carly to yell "Hey!" at him angrily. He stuck the chocolate cake in the fridge before turning back to Carly and pointing his index finger at her accusingly, "No cake!"

"Why?" Carly's whine resembled to a five-year-old's, causing Spencer to chuckle lightly in amusement. He walked over to the TV and turned it on with the remote, "Dinner's almost ready."

Carly folded her arms and raised an eyebrow, giving Spencer one of her many famous looks, "Dinner's pizza and it's taking _forever_, literally, by the time it'll get here I'll be ninety! Why can't you just make dinner?"

"Carly…" Spencer turned to the burnt microwave and sighed sadly. "You know the reason…"

Carly rolled her eyes and grunted, "Remind me to never let you play with bells."

"I just don't understand," Spencer began surfing the channels, he landed on the boat channel and turned to Carly, he looked in her directly in her hazel eyes and held his hands up in anxiety, "How in the world can _bells_ catch on _fire_?"

"That's what I'm sayin'!" Carly threw her hands up in the air and added an eye-roll for effect; Spencer sighed and turned back to the TV.

"Done," Freddie Benson, Carly's neighbor and iCarly's tech producer, announced as he nonchalantly walked down the wooden stairs, a satisfied smile playing on his lips as he flipped some of his dark locks out of his brown eyes. "The firmware on our server is updated."

"Cool, wanna stay for dinner?" Carly offered as she grabbed the remote and started surfing the channels, since there was absolutely no way she would spend the rest of the night watching the boat channel, she landed on Moon World and decided to watch Access Hollywood while Freddie plopped beside Spencer.

"Sure," He said enthusiastically, thankful to have an excuse to not eat his mother's horrendous spinach casserole. "Hey, where's Sam?"

Carly turned around and searched the apartment for her blonde best friend, there was, however, no sight of her. Shrugging, she turned back to Freddie, "I guess she left when Spencer was ordering the cake from the bakery," She said as she increased the volume of the TV, listening to the anchorwoman on Access Hollywood as she tapped her nails on the arm of the couch in the middle of the living room. The anchorwoman continued to give details on Ginger Fox's engagement with Wade Collins.

At first, Carly was completely flabbergasted when she found out they were dating, but then she had just guessed they would date for a month or two before breaking up, but they surprisingly lasted for about six months, and that alone confused Carly to a point where she started wondering if the apocalypse is near. Imagine her shock when she found out they were engaged. However, as weird as it sounds, it seemed like they were a pretty good pair, their moments were sweet and sickening at the same time. Turns out, their wedding's gonna be in England since Wade still thinks that everyone in America are 'hob knockers' excluding his fiancé and her friends and family. It's weird, people say they're an example of the old saying, opposites attract.

"Ginger Fox says that she's imperfect in her eyes, but perfect in Wade Collin's," The anchorwoman gushed as she glanced at a very blissful Ginger and Wade as they proceeded to drink their milkshake with two straws and smiled idiotically at each other, a spark going off in Ginger's eyes.

Freddie and Spencer mimed barfing while Carly rolled her eyes in amusement, "You guys!" She exclaimed, crossing her arms.

"What?" Spencer asked as he chuckled, "They're horrible together, I mean, just look at them! They're complete opposites!"

Carly sighed in frustration, "that's what makes them perfect! Well, perfect for each other, at least."

"So what? You're a Gade shipper now?" Freddie asked in amusement as he shifted in his seat, he smirked at Spencer who held back a laugh; Carly was rolling her eyes in both frustration and amusement when the bell suddenly rang, she then got out of her seat and opened the door.

"Hey Sam," she said as she stepped aside, letting her best friend in, Sam walked in and plopped next to Spencer, she sighed heavily before tugging her blond hair repeatedly. Carly closed the door and sat next to Sam, studying her vacant carefully, she let out a long sigh and Spencer and Freddie looked back and both Sam and Carly, wondering what was wrong with them.

"What's wrong?" Carly asked and Sam stared at her blankly, not allowing the slightest of emotion to appear on her face.

"Nothing," She answered simply before turning to the TV, her mouth immediately dropped when her blue eyes landed on the happy pair. "Wade Collins and Ginger Fox? What the chizz?" Sam aimed the remote at the cable and Carly snatched it away, she put the TV on mute before setting the remote beside her. "Sam," Carly said with a trace of concern in her voice, "What happened?"

"How would you know if something happened?" Sam asked, tugging on her bangs again, Carly raised an eyebrow and answered her with a simple, "Because I know you."

Sam sighed, not bothering to continue the endless game, she knew a lot better than to be sucked into one of Carly's endless mind games, so, instead of making this into a pointless Dr. Phil session, she let out a simple, "Eh, fine," before readjusting her position. "Ernie fell off the stage this afternoon and broke his leg."

Carly's hazel eyes immediately widened as soon as those words left Sam's mouth, Sam sighed and arched an eyebrow in anticipation, waiting for her response.

"Ernie, who was childhood dance coach? Ernie who helped you won the talent portion of the beauty pageant? Ernie who is your dance partner for the Washington State Dance Competition—" Sam cut Carly off.

"Ernie _was _my dance partner for the Washington State Dance Competition, he's in a leg cast, and the dance competition's only five weeks away, I'm gonna have to drop out," Sam said before turning back to Access Hollywood, she reached for the remote when she realized Carly still had it, she grunted.

"Let it out," Carly teased, causing Sam to roll her blue eyes, "done?" Sam asked.

"Not yet," Carly said as she fidgeted with her flow-y sky blue blouse, she moved her side bangs to the left and raised an eyebrow, "are you seriously dropping out?"

"It's not like I have a choice," Sam said, accidentally letting out some trace of worry and frustration, she put on her expressionless mask again and covered her worry with false anger and annoyance. "It's so unfair."

"So, you don't have a partner?" Carly asked while she tapped her nails dramatically on the arm chair she was sitting on, Sam shrugged simply before sighing, "Yep," she answered simply, "and there's nothing I can do about it."

All of a sudden, Freddie felt a wave of guilt and pity go through him. Then out of the blue, he felt a sudden urge to help Sam, a sudden desire, an overwhelming dose of pity and guilt, he exhaled deeply before sitting upright.

"You really wanna win this competition?" Freddie asked Sam, she turned to him and shrugged.

"Yeah," she paused for a second to think before adding a, "I guess." "So… why don't I be your partner?" he paused to examine Sam's face.

"You?" She asked, her tone unreadable. There, he waited for it, he waited for Sam to burst into a long, continuous laughing fit. He waited for her to roll on the floor laughing, he waited for her to throw insults at him repeatedly and wipe the tears out of her eyes and go on about how she would never, _ever_, be his dance partner even if he was the last dancer on Earth.

But, however, none of that came, instead he saw something that completely shocked him, Sam started considering it, she shrugged simply. "Sure," She said as she got up and walked over to the fridge, she opened it and pulled out a chocolate cake, she dipped her finger into the whip cream and sucked the whip cream off her finger, causing Spencer to groan in annoyance and Carly to chuckle in amusement. Freddie, however, just stood there, trying to put two and two together, did Sam just say _yes_?

"You're good at dancing, right?" Sam asked, snapping Freddie out of his thoughts.

"Uh… I guess," he shrugged. "I'm not the best, though."

"Have you taken any lessons on dancing?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow and dipping her finger into the chocolate cake again. Freddie shook his head and Sam narrowed her eyes, she looked behind Freddie and sighed before turning to him, "Well then I guess I'm gonna have to teach you."

Before Freddie could respond, Sam's phone beeped and she took it out of her pocket. She flipped it open and brought it to her face, and then she groaned.

"I'm leaving," she said as she picked up her bag and headed to the door.

"Why?" Carly asked as she walked over to the counter, Sam turned to face them again.

"My mom wants me to meet her new boyfriend," Sam rolled her eyes and put her phone back in her pocket, "She thinks he could be 'The One'."

Carly laughed lightly, "Doesn't she say that about all the guys she dates?"

"Uh-huh," Sam said in confirmation, rolling her eyes as she opened the door and raised an eyebrow at the pizza delivery guy. She grabbed the box of pizza out of his hand and opened the box, she then took out a slice of pizza and took a bite. "Later," she said before walking away with the box, the delivery guy turned to Spencer and held out his hand, "Bill."

Spencer groaned and walked over to the guy, saying that he should have another box since Sam had already took their dinner, Carly walked over to him and started begging him to just let it go and order Chinese food, while Freddie, however, was frozen, he was still processing what happened, a question was ringing in his head,

_What just happened?_

* * *

**Hope you liked this chapter, oh and please note that the inspiration thing and Sam's drawings on the wall will play a big part in future chapters, also, did anyone notice that Moon World is a parody of Star World?**

**Jared will be a recurring character, I think you'll take a liking to him in future chapters, also, Sam won't be teaching Freddie to dance until the next chapter, and the whole Ginger/Wade thing will be also a recurring subject in this story, they are kinda good together, don't you think? And, if any of you haven't figured it out, Gade is the parring name for Ginger and Wade.**


	2. Goosebumps

**Summary: ****In which Sam loses her partner for a big dance competition and Freddie does everything in his power to help her. ****Response to Smiley Face's challenge.**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't.**

**Chapter 2: Goosebumps**

* * *

Sam rested her head on the frosty window of her mother's car as she watched the rain fall onto the ground. She looked at the blue digital numbers on her watch before turning back to her mother, Kara Puckett.

"Mom," Sam asked as she rested her head on the navy seat. "Could you hurry up? It's almost five thirty and I need to be at Ridgeway."

Pam shook her head no. "Sam, if the police catch me speeding again they'll take away my car."

Sam rolled her blue eyes before leaning on the window and watching the rain fall endlessly again, she then realized something and turned to her mother. "Where's _my_ car? I didn't see it this morning."

"I loaned it to that fisherman by the lake," Pam said coolly, Sam stared at her with wide blue eyes; Pam turned to look at Sam and raised an eyebrow at her expression.

"What?"

"You loaned my car to some fisherman?" Sam asked in shock. Pam moved her short blonde bangs to the side and licked her thin red lickerish stained lips.

"Mmm-hmm, Sandy will take good care of it, and it's just for the weekend, it's not that bad."

"How could you loan my car to some fisherman? Why couldn't you just—" Sam was cut off by a loud crash, she immediately turned away from her mother and wiped her frosty window so she could see outside, there, she saw a large pile rubbish falling to the ground. Ernie groaned and bent over to pick them one by one; Sam chuckled lightly at his antics and turned back to Pam.

"Is he married?" Pam asked as she pointed to Ernie, Sam rolled her eyes at her mother's desperation and nodded her head immediately. She knew Ernie wasn't married, but she didn't know whether he was dating anyone. All she knew is that Ernie didn't do anything bad to her, so why torture him with a date with Pam?  
Pam's face fell and she nodded sadly before turning back to the steering wheel, all of a sudden, Sam felt a wave of guilt flowing through her, followed by a weird desire to help Pam. She sighed before running her hands through her crazy, unruly blonde curls.

"He isn't," she said simply and Pam squealed like a five year old girl, causing Sam to roll her eyes once more. Pam pulled up in front of Ridgeway and turned to face Sam.

"We're here."

Sam unbuckled her seatbelt and walked out of her mother's car; she pulled the hood up of her grey hoodie and slammed the car door shut before running up wet, slippery stoned carved stairs leading up to the two front doors of Ridgeway High; she took a deep breath and pulled down the sleeves of her hoodie before opening the front door of Ridgeway High and stepped in the empty hallway, she closed the door behind her and walked down the hall, it was completely empty; no teachers or students, it was seemed strange; because Sam always saw it filled with teachers and students, plus, it was weird coming to school on a Saturday, and very unlike Sam.

Sam finger-combed her crazy curls for five seconds before walking up the stairs and entering the top floor, she walked to her right and sure enough there was a large, colorful door that said **DANCE ROOM** in big bold letters.

Sam took a deep breath and stepped into the dance room, it was much bigger than she expected. The walls were light brown and made of wood and so were the floors, there were giant mirrors on the wall and a chocolate brown piano at a corner, she then realized Freddie was missing, she looked at her digital watch. The door opened and Freddie walked in, he stopped in his tracks when he noticed Sam was already here.

"Hey Sam," he said as he closed the door behind him, he placed his bag on the wooden floor and looked around the room in awe, Sam just simply rolled her blue eyes and got up, she wiped her palms on her jeans again and simply tied her hair into a sloppy ponytail. "Sup, Fredbag," she said coolly, whoa, this was gonna be easier than she thought, Freddie rolled his brown eyes at Sam's greeting/insult.

"You're early," he said raising his eyebrows. "Weird. So, are you gonna teach me to dance or what?"

"Well, what type of dance do you wanna learn?" Sam asked, leaning against the walls, Freddie looked to his right and looked outside the window; clouds began to fill the sky and a fog grew, then, rain started pouring and thunder and lightning started flashing and striking, Freddie sighed; and he figured that's what he should have expected for rainy Seattle, he turned back to Sam and shrugged.

"What type of dance are we doing for the competition, anyway?" Freddie asked.

"How should I know? I don't get to choose what dance we do," Sam retorted, causing Freddie to scrunch his eyebrows together in confusion.

"What do you mean—" Sam cut Freddie off.

"The directors and organizers of the Washington State Dance Competition bring their dancers to the auditorium of the Parker-Nichols hotel every three years," Sam began, leaning her head against one of the many large mirrors.

"The dancers wait for their names to be called onstage, when their names are called, they go up and the directors and organizers take out a special grey hat, they call it "The Hat"." Sam said making air quotes with her fingers. "The Hat?" Freddie asked, smirking slightly at the lame name. "How unoriginal."

Sam nodded, "tell me about it."

Freddie then sat next to her and leaned his head against the mirror, assuming the same position Sam was in, their elbows were lightly brushing, that gave Freddie and Sam both goose bumps.

"So anyway," Sam said as she pulled up the sleeve of her grey hoodie and rubbed her hands ferociously and continuously, trying to get rid of the goose bumps. "They write down all the types of dances on pieces of paper and tear them into little pieces of papers and put them in The Hat," Freddie nodded.

"You pretty much know the drill;" Sam said after a long silence. "They stick their hands in The Hat and whatever name of dance is on the paper you get, you do it. But they do send a dance instructor to check up on you once a week, and gives you pointers and tips."

"So basically, you have to know every type of dance known to man?" Freddie asked in disbelief and Sam nodded her head.

"Uh-huh," she said as she tied her hair into a loose ponytail, she fidgeted with the strings of her grey hoodie and turned to Freddie, who had a puzzled and shocked look.

"Harsh," Freddie said and Sam nodded, they were hard on the dancers, but it's the Washington State Dance Competition they were talking about, of course they were hard on you.

Sam sighed lightly and twisted her blonde locks over and over, braiding them and unbraiding them repeatedly. She always did that when she was stressed, and thinking about what she had to go through to get in the WSDC stressed her out, it seriously did.

"So what, do we wait until we get the dance from "The Hat" first?" Freddie asked and Sam shook her head.

"Nope," she said, hugging her legs. "It's best if I teach you the basics first."

Sam and Freddie got up simultaneously, Sam turned around and pulled up her the sleeve on her grey hoodie, she saw a trail goose bumps. She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion before she pulled her sleeve down and turned around.

"Okay," she breathed, silently hoping and praying for the best. "Basically, I put my right hand around your neck and my left hand in yours."

"All right," Freddie said, nodding his head.

Sam bit her lower lip slightly and put her hand around Freddie's neck, only to feel the same electric spark go through her like before, she ignored it and put her hand in Freddie's hand, only to find _another_ spark go through her, the same thing happened for Freddie, this confused Freddie but frustrated and angered Sam.

"When I move my right foot backwards, you'll have to move yours forward," Sam said. "Got that?"

Sam moved her right foot backwards and, in a split second, Freddie moved his left foot forward, Sam sighed because she noticed Freddie was looking at his feet as he moved it forward, didn't he know he wasn't supposed to do that?

"Don't look at your feet," Sam hissed.

"Huh? Then how am I gonna make sure that my foot won't step on yours?" Freddie asked and Sam rolled her blue eyes as she bit the insides of her mouth.

"Just picture me ripping your head off the moment your foot steps on mine," she growled between clenched teeth. "That should keep you alerted."

Freddie gulped and he nodded.

"Anyway," Sam began; trying to get back to the dancing part, if she wanted to win this competition she had to make sure Freddie would be able to dance, at least, look like he could dance. "As I move my left foot backwards you move your right foot forward, usually this goes on into a circle or a square."

"So just try and move around in a square."

"Why a square?" Freddie asked.

"Because I said so," Sam said, getting tired of the never ending questions, her facial expression made that fact pretty obvious, so Freddie decided to stop with the questions for now unless he wanted to be thrown into the East River, so, for the next hour and a half, Freddie had actually managed to learn the dance Sam taught him, he even added some moves to it, and Sam _didn't_ reject them.

It felt good, he felt good. So, as they called a quits for the day, he was smiling idiotically as he walked out of the room.

"Why so cheery?" Sam asked when she caught up to him; she tied her blonde hair into a loose ponytail and smirked at Freddie.

"What? I'm not cheery," Freddie said as he walked down the stairs, Sam rolled her eyes and smiled teasingly.

"Oh yes you are," she said, nudging him playfully. "Why?"

"Can't a guy smile?" Freddie asked as he opened the front doors, he walked out of the school and into the sun, guess the rain cleared up; Sam walked down after him and crossed her arms.

"Smile? Yes, smile like an idiot for no reason? No," Sam said and Freddie rolled his eyes, he sat on the stone carved stairs in front of Ridgeway.

"I have a reason."

"Which is?" Sam asked as she sat next to him, she moved her bangs to the side and pulled up the sleeves of her hoodie, she then saw something she really didn't want to see at the time; goose bumps.

"Can't say," Freddie said as he pulled out his Pearphone and began to text his mom and ask him to pick him up from AV Club, he didn't tell her that he would be spending his time with Sam today, for obvious reasons. Marissa Benson hated Sam, mostly because of the physical abuse Sam constantly gives Freddie, Mrs. Benson hates Carly too. She hates most of the people Freddie hangs out with.

"Whatever," Sam got up and walked down the stairs; she then remembered something and turned around. "Oh, tomorrow the WSDC are going to announce what dance we're doing from "The Hat"."

Freddie snickered and rolled his eyes, "What time?"

"Three thirty at the Parker-Nichols hotel's auditorium," Sam said as she continued to walk down the stairs. "Be there."

"I will," he said before finishing his text to his mother, when he was done, he slid his Pearphone into his pocket and waited patiently for Marissa.

That night Sam walked into her room after taking a shower and brushing her teeth, she was in a plain oversized white T-shirt and black shorts, her blonde hair was slightly damp and messy, she was flipping through a Meat Magazine when she noticed her arm, it _still_ had goose bumps!

Sam stared at her arm in disbelief.

"What's with all these goose bumps?" she asked herself in shock.


	3. Not Helping At All

**Hey guys, thanks for all the amazing reviews!  
Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't. Oh, and I don't own Paramore's song Decode or Running Away by A.M. (official Seddie song, *fangirl squeal*)**

**Chapter 3: Not helping!  
**

Sam looked at the trail of goosebumps on her pale arm; her mouth was hanging slightly open in both shock and horror as she stared at it with wide ocean blue eyes.

She looked over to the frosty chocolate brown tabletop beside her; she grabbed her red handphone and immediately punched in Carly's number. Sam held the phone close to her right ear with her right hand while she fidgeted with her blonde curls fretfully with her left as she waited for Carly to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" Carly asked resignedly from the other side of the line, sounding slightly cranky due to being awoken from her peaceful sleep.

"Carls? It's Sam," Sam said as she continued to mess with her blonde curls, eventually, she clung onto them as hard as she could and refused to let them go even for a second.

It was as if they were her life support.

"Sam, hey," Carly said, trying to perk up. "Why are you calling me so late at night?"

"I have a question," Sam said she sunk onto her bed, she ran her left hand through her soft curls and bit her lower lip slightly, she tugged on her blonde hair repeatedly while staring at her arm.

"At eleven thirty p.m.?" Carly asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Yeah," Sam said softly. When Carly told her to hurry up and ask her the question, Sam decided it was better-and safer- for her to lie. "Sorry, but, um, Melanie called earlier and said her arm had a trail of goosebumps just after she brushed hands with her friend Jeff, she asked me what this meant, I, having zero experience in serious relationships and such, had no idea so I decided to ask you, since Mel won't stop bugging me about it."

"Melanie asked _you_ for guy advice?" Carly asked in disbelief and Sam raised her eyebrows in shock.

"Yeah, why?" she asked, feeling slightly insulted. Her tone made that obvious and Carly realized her mistake.

"No, Sam, I don't mean it like _that_ it's just that Mel always comes to _me_ for guy advice," Carly said, now feeling slightly insulted. "I wonder why she stopped."  
"Maybe she just didn't want to wake you up," Sam said as she continued to cling onto her blonde curls.

"Unlike you," Carly chuckled lightly and Sam rolled her eyes. She opened one of the many drawers of her frosty chocolate brown tabletop and took out a glowing light blue Chinese lantern and held it in front of her, the lights illuminated her curls and her pale skin. Soft, sweet music immediately started playing from her Pearpod and it burned into her phone, Carly's professionally curled eyelids felt extra heavy and she started to drift to sleep.

"Umm," Carly muttered, Sam's ocean blue eyes widened and, in a split second, she grabbed her Pearpod, she pressed the playlist on shuffle and Paramore's song Decode played, Sam skipped to the chorus and put it on full volume, causing Carly's hazel eyes to snap open again.

"I'm awake," Carly said as she shifted in her seat and yawned. "Anyways, here's my theory; Melanie's crushing on this Jeff guy."

"She's crushing on him?" Sam asked, her heart started racing and her palms got clammy and sweaty, she wiped them on her black shorts and brought her hands, which were now shaking uncontrollably, to her curls again and clung onto them. "How?"

"Well, goosebumps are the dots that form on the skin when a person is cold, afraid, or experiencing strong emotions." Carly began and that one sentence made Sam's thoughts go wild. "This reflex is linked to the sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for most fight-or-flight response, was Mel cold or afraid during that time?"

Sam shook her head, causing her blonde curls to fly around and a scent of strawberries filled the surrounding air.

"Nope, she was perfectly fine," Sam said as she clung onto her curls again, harder this time. Her nails jammed into her palms and it started to throb.

"Then she's experiencing "strong emotions"," even though Carly was on the phone and Sam was unable to see her at the time, she could tell that Carly had made air quotes on the words "strong emotions", she _really _hoped that Carly was wrong.

"Which means she's falling for him," Carly said, snapping Sam out of her thoughts. "Hard."

Sam's heart began racing and her palms began sweating again, she wiped them on her shorts and gulped nervously. Her throat grew dry and suddenly she felt ten times colder than she was before. Sam released her death grip on her curls and swallowed hard.

"Okay," Sam said shakily as she gripped her curls again. "Thanks Carls, I'll be sure to tell that to Melanie."

Carly started to say something, but Sam had already hung up. More than anything, she wished she had never called Carly that night, because tomorrow, she would have to meet Freddie in the Parker-Nichols hotel's auditorium and judging from her sweating palms and the fact she could not let go of her curls no matter how hard she tried; tomorrow's not gonna go good.

Running Away by A.M. came on, Sam jumped slightly and grabbed her Pearpod, she turned it off and sighed heavily.

"Not helping!" she whispered to herself. The image of the fire escape filled her mind, causing her palms to grow clammy again. Sam groaned and wiped them on her shorts for the last time before whispering, "not helping at all."

**Hi guys! **

**Hope you liked this chapter, I know it's shorter than it usually is sorry about that. **

**Anyways, review!  
It'll make me really happy, plus I'll update faster.**


	4. Another Night, Another Mental Breakdown

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? C'mon you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't. And Tech Savvy is just a magazine name I made up, if there is a tech magazine called Tech Savvy, I don't own that either.**

**Chapter 4: Another Night, Another Mental Breakdown.**

* * *

_Another day, another dollar._

Yes, that was the famous slogan that got adults up and running and excited for their day of work. Well, it got hardworking adults up and running.

Another day, another dollar is a recognition of a tough daily slog. Sam, however, thought the saying should be changed to 'another day, another mental breakdown.'

Because she was sort of… mentally unstable sometimes.

She would have a mental breakdown every once in a while, but it usually happens around midnight. It was nothing big, she would just feel extremely defensive and uneasy, her nerves would jumble up and she would be really alerted and kind of psycho. But it usually lasts up to two minutes before she becomes sane and stable again.

So a more appropriate saying would be 'another night, another mental breakdown.'

Yes, she was a mess but everyone does things that are kind of insane right?

Take Carly for example, she takes super-long showers when there's absolutely no need to. And Freddie, he still uses a nightlight even though he's sixteen years old, there's more but… she _really_ didn't want to think about him right now, because of the phone call she and Carly had last night. And lastly, Gibby and Spencer… don't even get her started on those wackjobs.

Shrugging noncommittally, Sam ran her green comb through her slightly damp blonde curls as she walked around her room mindlessly. She rubbed her tired icy blue eyes before sighing heavily and placing the comb back on the chocolate brown tabletop.

Sam picked up her red bag before walking out of newly decorated room and walking down the new dark chocolate wooden stairs, courtesy of Sam's dad.

"Hey Mom, bye Mom," Sam said quickly before opening the front door of her house, she had only managed to place one foot outside her backdoor before her mother yelled, "Wait!" from the kitchen.

Sam groaned and closed the door before walking into the kitchen hesitantly.

Pam narrowed her green eyes and placed her hands on her hips before shaking her head slowly, her short blonde hair bounced in every slight movement and she bit her lower lip slightly. "Why didn't you tell me Jared was a vegetarian?"

Sam's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "He is?"

Pam nodded simply before viciously twisting her blonde hair and stuffing it into her mouth, she mumbled angrily with a mouthful of blonde hair. "He even said women who eat meat are gross! I am never going near that pathetic excuse for a man ever again!"

Sam couldn't help but laugh, she knew for a fact Jared lied to avoid dinning with Pam, after all, she had saw him chewing hungrily on a turkey leg just a few weeks ago by a large pile of trash and spritzing himself with cologne while he chewed.

"This isn't funny!" Pam snapped while she spat out her blonde hair angrily, she tapped her super-long dark green painted nails on the table beside her while angrily biting the insides of her mouth. Her navy blue eyes popped open as she slowly shook her head, making her look somewhat psychotic.

Somewhere in between Mrs. Benson and Ginger Fox before she went to rehab.

"When Jared told me all of these horrid things," Pam said with a crazy gleam in her green eyes. "I immediately knew you did this to me on purpose, so I went to Sandy, the fisherman, and paid him twenty dollars to drive your car into a pile of fish."

Sam's mouth dropped open and her icy blue eyes widened in surprise and horror, "You did not!"

"Did too!" Pam smirked evilly before walking up the stairs, she ran her hands dramatically across the chocolate brown railing and smiled. "That ought to teach you to mess with me."

"Where is it now?" Sam asked through clenched teeth, causing Kara to smile in satisfaction.

"Outside smelling like a can of rotten tuna," Pam let out a laugh, which resembled to those cheesy villains evil laugh on TV and movies, before walking up the stairs.

Sam groaned and kicked the worn out sofa beside her angrily before storming out the door, there she saw her silver Volkswagen in the middle of broad sunlight smelling like, and she quotes, rotten tuna.

She cussed Pam under her breath before rolling her eyes and storming over to the bus stop, where she would have to waste twenty minutes of her life waiting for the next bus to arrive.

Freddie pushed open the large chocolate brown front doors of the Parker-Nichols hotel and stepped in, there, he saw a large group of people crowding around a thirty-something strawberry blonde-haired receptionist with large thick red glasses.

She pressed her abnormally large lips, which had five layers of dark purple lipstick smeared all over it, together as she placed her pale and wrinkly hands on her red and green flowered baggy blouse.

Her strawberry blonde hair was dry and lacking volume, it was tied up into a ridiculously high bun and a green scarf was tied around her forehead three times.

The mere sight of her made Freddie's skin crawl, not that he was being shallow it's just she looked like some sort of a drag queen who spent hours and hours applying tons and tons of makeup on herself.

"Okay," she sighed and raised her wrinkly hands up in frustration. "I'm just _one_ woman, please don't crowd around me, I need to breathe!"

The crowd growled at her angrily and formed a neat and orderly line across the counter; this caused the receptionist to smile in satisfaction.

Freddie looked at the long line of people and went to the very end, in about five minutes; he was at the front of the line facing the receptionist, which wasn't very pleasant.

"Hi sweet cheeks," the receptionist smiled warmly at him, causing her extremely red cheeks, a result of six layers of blush, to reach up to her dull hazel eyes. "What can I do for you today?"

Before Freddie could answer, a twenty something Asian-American man in a suit stormed over to the counter.

"Candy," he spat. "How many times must I tell you to wear a uniform when you come to work?"

"And how many times do I have to tell you the uniforms are dull and boring with absolutely no creativity, unlike Me." Candy smiled with pride as she placed her hands on her chunky hips again. "How would you like it if someone forced you to wear a disgustingly and poorly designed suit that only losers would wear, huh, _Gretel_?"

Freddie raised his eyebrows and smirked in amusement, he turned to the man in a suit who was tomato red.

"Gretel?" he asked in amusement as he tried to hold back a laugh.

"My mom wanted a girl alright! Besides," he turned back to Candy and put his hands on his hips. "I told you to call me Greg instead!"

"Ashamed of your real name?" Candy asked in a mock voice as she slapped her horribly manicured hands on her heart.

"You're hardly one to talk," Greg said and leaned in. "_Candela_."

Candy's eyes widened in shock as she bit the insides of her mouth angrily.

"Later," he smirked at Candy before walking away,

Candy slowly shook her head and turned back to Freddie.

"Sorry about that," she said in a soft whisper. "Greg is such a jerk; he's rude, obnoxious, lazy, aggressive, abrasive and just down right horrid, he loves making fun of me and using my real name, Candela." She growled and narrowed her omelet shaped eyes angrily as she scrunched her eyebrows together. "Which I despise and hate with every inch of my being, and he knows that! I seriously don't know why I still stick around him and work with him, any normal person would have quit by now."

Freddie shook his head slowly, knowing that's his point of view of Sam. "I feel your pain."

Candy shrugged and sighed heavily, a long silence followed.

"Anyway," Candy said, breaking the silence. She tucked her hair behind her ears and smiled at Freddie again. "What are you here for?"

"The Washington State Dance Competition," Freddie replied simply.

Candy's hazel eyes widened in shock as soon as those words left Freddie's mouth.

"You're in the WSDC?" she asked in disbelief and Freddie nodded. "Nice, it's about time someone straight-thinking is competing in the WSDC," she bent over and took out a big, golden book and flipped through the pages rapidly. "You are?"

"Freddie Benson," Freddie replied and Candy's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as she flipped through the pages of the book.

"No Freddie Benson here," she said as she closed the book. "Who's your partner?"

"Sam Puckett."

Candy opened the book again and flipped through it rapidly. She stopped at a page and ran her finger through it.

"No Sam Puckett, just a Samantha Puckett," she said and Freddie nodded.

"That's her."

"But she's paired up with an Ernie Hills," Candy said and narrowed her eyes in suspicion and confusion at Freddie. "Are you sure?"

"Well-"

"I'm here!" a voice yelled and both Candy and Freddie turned around, there they saw Sam, walking towards them as she slung her red checkered bagback behind her bag and walked up to them.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, out of breath. "The bus broke down halfway along the way and I had to run all the way here," she panted and brushed her bangs to the side. "Stupid public transport."

"Why didn't you just drive your car?" Freddie asked in confusion, Sam's face hardened and she rolled her eyes as she bit her lower lip slightly. She put her hand on her hip and bit the insides of her mouth.

"Long story," she mumbled through clenched teeth, Freddie could tell by her sudden change of mood something big happened, so he decided to ask her that question later.

"So," Sam said, perking up. "Did I miss anything?"

"We can't find Freddie's name," Candy said and turned her attention back to the golden book. "All I see is Samantha Puckett and Ernie Hills."

"Who's Freddie?" Sam asked, looking confused and puzzled.

Freddie turned to her and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I'm Freddie," he said and Sam turned to him, looking at him as if he was insane.

"No," she said and Freddie scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion. "You're Ernie," Sam paused and examined his face. "As in Ernie Hills."

She turned to Candy and smiled sweetly, "He hasn't been quite right after that fall."

"What fall?" Freddie asked and Sam turned back to him, she knocked her hand against his head lightly.

"The fall you had a few days ago," she turned back to Candy and smiled again. "He has slight amnesia, he can't remember his name. He always thinks his Freddie on the cover of the tech magazine Tech Savvy."

Candy chuckled lightly, "Of course, the auditorium is the first door on your right."

"Thanks," Sam smiled again before walking away; Freddie ran up to her and grabbed her shoulder, causing a spark to flow through him. He ignored it and spun her around.

"What was _that_?" he asked and Sam rolled her eyes.

"I'll tell you later," she said simply before dragging him over to the auditorium and ignored the electric sparks flowing through her, all she hoped for was that she wouldn't have a trail of goosebumps on her arms when she gets home.

Sam opened the door of the auditorium and gasped slightly when she saw it.

It had an amazing stage with different lights on top, spinning around and shining all over the room. Red, yellow, green, pink, light blue, white and more, an amazing sparkling chandelier, tons and tons of rows of white and red chairs on the front floor, and more on the second, a large coffee brown table in front with three seats, those are probably the judging table where the judges… judge and two identical royal red curtains at the front.

"Whoa," was all Sam managed to say, Freddie crept up behind her.

"Tell me about it," he breathed down her neck, causing electric shots to zoom through Sam.

"Alright," a woman in a red and black suit walked on stage wearing a portable microphone, "dancers aged fourteen to eighteen on the right portion of the room and dancers aged eighteen to twenty-two on the left portion."

She looked at the green clipboard and placed it under her arm before clapping her hands together. "Chop, chop."

"Let's go," Sam said and walked over to the right portion of the auditorium and Freddie followed behind her.

Once everyone was seated, two women went up on stage holding a large, grey hat with little pieces of colorful paper stuffed inside.

"Hello?" the woman with short red hair said into her portable microphone. "You see this?" she held up the grey hat and moved it around in every direction.

"This is," she paused for dramatic effect and turned to her friend with long, straight light brown hair.

"The Hat," they said in unison before pausing for applause, which was what they got, Sam just rolled her eyes and clapped halfheartedly and Freddie chuckled lightly.

"This hat holds each and every one of you dancer's future," the brunette said drastically. "All twenty five of you," the redhead said while slowly nodding her head. "We're gonna start with the fourteen-year-olds."

The redhead looked at her red clipboard, "Addison Adams and Henry Gills."

"Your dance is," the brunette reached into The Hat and pulled out a small light green piece of paper. "Jazz."

"Charlotte Kingsley and Michael Parker," the redhead said as she looked at her clipboard and tapped it repeatedly with her blue fountain pen.

"Your dance is," the brunette reached into The Hat and pulled out a red piece of paper. "Tap."

Minutes and minutes passed by and Sam and Freddie grew tired of waiting for their names to be called, they called name after name, and just when you think you were going to be next- it turns out to be someone else.

The redhead took out a purple clipboard and held it in front of her, "Samantha Puckett and Ernie Hills."

"That's us," Sam whispered excitedly.

"Why aren't they calling me by my real name?" Freddie whispered and Sam elbowed him in the ribs.

"Shh!" she snapped and turned her attention back to the stage, Freddie winced slightly.

"Your dance is," the brunette reached into The Hat and pulled out a purple piece of paper. "The Latin tango."

Those three words left Sam's mouth hanging open in both shock and horror, her icy blue eyes widened and her heart started racing. Her palms grew sweaty and clammy and Sam felt as if a lump had just formed in her throat.

Because she was doing the Latin tango with Freddie for the Washington State Dace Competition, and the Latin tango was also known as the most romantic dance known to man.


	5. A Year Without Rain

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't. I also don't own A Year without Rain by Selena Gomez OR the tech channel (if there is one), how many times do we have to go through this?**

**Chapter 5: A year without rain.**

* * *

Sam shakily brought her red Pearpod up to her face and erratically plugs in her earphones before shifting uncomfortably in her bus seats as she bit her lower lip slightly. She looked to her right and, as expected, Freddie was seating beside her texting someone with his Pearphone anxiously.

Sam sighed lightly before leaning her head against the window and looked at the sight in front of her mindlessly as she played with her blonde curls; this was becoming a bad habit. And for some unknown reason, it was a habit that was almost impossible for her to break.

"You okay?" Freddie asked suddenly as he lowered his Pearphone and placed a comforting arm on Sam's hoodie-covered arm, the sudden dose of electric sparks flowing through her caused Sam to drop her Pearpod in surprise.

"I was," Sam mumbled as she plugged the earphones out of her ears before reaching over to grab her Pearpod. She looked through her playlist and looked for a good song to play. She landed on Ginger Fox's _My World_ and pressed the repeat button so Running Away by A.M. wouldn't suddenly come on.

"Sorry," Freddie mumbled and Sam rolled her eyes before fidgeting and clinging onto her curls again as she continued to look outside the window as she bit her lower lip.

Her racing heart and sweating palms were irritating her up to a point she wanted to kill the Washington State Dance Competition for creating "The Hat" instead of allowing the dancers to choose whatever dance they wanted to.

Sam sighed again and tried to focus on the music from her Pearpod.

_Don't think there's ever someone better._

_Don't think you're ever gonna get her._

**Flashback:**

_It was around eleven p.m. on a Saturday night. Carly, Sam and Freddie were all seated on the living room couch in the middle of the Shay apartment all doing their own things. On the coffee table in front of them sat three orders of Chinese food and three cans of Peppy Colas._

_On the TV was the tech channel and they were introducing a new segment called "Design Your Own Software." Which Freddie was greatly enjoying._

_Sam started pigging out on her Kung Pao chicken and enjoying every bite, sucking in the delicious and succulent taste._  
_When she was done, she set her plate on the table and wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her light blue T-shirt and rested her head on Carly's shoulder._

_"Urgh, why the chizz are we watching the dork channel?" she asked and Carly chuckled and Freddie just rolled his eyes._

_"Why can't you be nicer?" he asked as his eyes lazily focused on the TV while running his hands through his hair, Sam turned to him and punched Freddie's shoulder as hard as she possibly could._

_"Don't tell me what to do," she growled as she watched Freddie wince in pain before readjusting her position and flipped her blonde hair out of her eyes._

_"Carly, she just punched me!" Freddie whined as he turned to Carly, who was rolling her hazel eyes and bringing a gossip magazine up to her face, ignoring him._

_"You see, not even Carly wants to take your side," Sam said, causing Freddie to scowl at her. She turned to Freddie and raised her eyebrow at his expression before pressing her lips together. "Stop scowling. And stop whining to Carly like a five-year-old all the time, in fact, why don't you just give up the idea that one day Carly might love you; she already told you that you were just bacon in her eyes, so why bother chasing after her? Do you seriously think that you're ever gonna get her?"_

_Freddie just stared at her in shock, trying to process what she had just said –or yelled– before slowly turning back to the TV, so did Sam._

_Carly just stared at Sam open-mouthed and Sam pretended she didn't notice her stare._

**End of flashback.**

The bus pulled over at the bus stop in front of Sam's house and she slung her bag over her bag before walking out without saying goodbye to Freddie.

She ran over to her house and stopped in her tracks when she realized Kara was washing her car. Not Kara's car, but _Sam's_.

"Mom, are you _cleaning_ my car?" Sam asked in disbelief as she walked up to her mother.

Kara nodded and her recently curled blonde hair bounced as she nodded. She gave Sam a toothy smile before getting back to work.

"Well, Jared came by and apologized to me and said he just wanted to be friends. I said it was my fault for raising such a daughter and told him that you didn't know any better, he then explained to me that you had nothing to do with it and I felt bad so here I am washing your car."

Sam nodded slowly before walking back into her house; she walked up the stairs and stepped into her room and flung onto her bed.

After a few hours of listening to the songs on her playlist, minus Running Away, the rain started to fall endlessly and heavily.

Sam hugged her legs to her chest and rocked back and forth, her breathing was still uneven and unnatural, but it was much worse than before.

Even without listening to Running Away, the image of the fire escape filled her mind and the song was getting stuck in her head.

She clung onto her curls again and she absolutely could not let go no matter what, this was becoming a problem.

After much thought and consideration, Sam came onto a decision; she was going to see the only person she knew, besides Carly, who was at Glitter Gloss with Wendy right now, who could help her with this problem—Shelby Marx.

* * *

Shelby took a deep breath before moving her outgrown long side bangs to the right before biting her lower lip in anticipation and raising an eyebrow at Larry, her personal trainer, who was holding the navy blue punching bag and gulping repeatedly. She rolled her eyes in annoyance and gestured for him to man-up.

He nodded obediently and closed his eyes shut, causing Shelby to fold her arms in annoyance before flicking Larry's head.

"Shelbs!" Larry yelled as he reached over to rub the part where Shelby flicked, she smiled slyly as she watched him wince in pain, surprisingly; she tends to enjoy other people's pain. Especially when she's the cause of it, she doesn't know why, though, she just does.

It causes a strange fire to run through her veins and it lifts her spirits, she'll literally do anything to watch someone fall before her, crawl on their knees and beg for forgiveness.

She absolutely adores having that power and feeling of superiority, having the upper hand makes her feel important and mighty, and she basically lives for it.

"Larry, come on," she begs as she crosses her arms and tilts her head to the right, causing her professionally straighten light brown locks to fall to the right with her head. The white lights behind her illuminated her entire frame making Shelby look somewhat angelic, hoping this will loosen Larry up. "I need you to focus and stop being such a baby!"

Larry gulped before nodding his head and sighing heavily; he placed his glove covered hands on the blue punching bag and held it tightly. Shelby smiled in satisfaction before punching the navy punching bag with her white and black glove covered hands with all of her strength.

"I hate training with you," Larry mumbled as soon as they were done training, Shelby was sipping her bubbly water by the cooler and he was rubbing his stomach repeatedly as he sulked sadly. Shelby rolled my eyes and continued to drink her water, ignoring Larry as he mumbled unhappily under his breath.

The door behind her opened and she turned around, causing her brown hair to spin around in every direction, hitting Larry in the face. "Urgh," Larry mumbled as he shoved Shelby's hair out of his face and folded his arms.

She turned around and placed her hands on her hips as she raised an eyebrow, "this is why you don't get dates," she began as she examined him from head to toe. "You're always whining."

"Hey, Shelbs," a familiar voice said from behind Shelby, she turned around to face the person and broke into a huge toothy smile when she noticed Sam leaning against the door. Shelby ran over to her with open arms and hugged her tightly.

"Hey!" Shelby said cheerily as she let go to face a chuckling Sam. "What are you doing here?"

Sam shrugged and cranked her neck to look behind Shelby; she pressed her lips together and turned back to face Shelby. Sam pointed to Larry with her index finger and gave Shelby a worried look. She immediately caught Sam's hint and turned to Larry, who was humming to an old 90s song.

"Larry," Shelby's tone was serious and slightly harsh, causing Larry to spin around and look at her with fearful hazel eyes. Shelby smiled at that, greatly enjoying the feeling of superiority overflowing her. "Don't you think people should appreciate nature more?"

Larry scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion and gave Shelby a questioning look; she ignored it and continued my sentence. "I think you should go out and appreciate nature, you know, look at the birds, bees, trees and all that chizz." Larry opened his mouth to protest, but Shelby shushed him with one of her many death glares.

He nodded quickly and fled the room without saying another word; she closed the door behind her and rolled her eyes before turning back to Sam.

"Now," Shelby began after she pulled the curtains of all the windows and sat Sam down. "Why are you here?"

"I need advice," Sam said in a soft whisper, causing Shelby to scrunch her eyebrows in confusion. Sam never needs advice, she was a very tough cookie, she never needed help and even if she did, she would never ever admit it to anyone other than Carly because of her great pride. That was one of the many things Sam and Shelby have in common.

"You have tons of experience in relationships right?" Sam asked, staring intently at the cooler as Shelby nodded slowly, trying to figure out where Sam was going with this; Sam noticed Shelby's confusion and gulped.

"You know Freddie?" she asked, still speaking in the soft whisper and Shelby nodded simply.

"The kid who offered me raisin bread toast and sniffed my hair, yes I remember him," Shelby said, rolling her eyes at the memory.

"Well… I entered the Washington State Dance Competition and Freddie's my partner," Shelby opened her mouth to respond but Sam shushed her by raising her palm in the air and shaking her head slowly.

"Long story," she said simply and Shelby nodded, she reached into the cooler and pulled out two cans of Peppy Cola and tossed one can to Sam. She caught it and took a sip before sighing heavily.

"Well I'm doing the Latin tango with him and I think I might be falling for the guy."

That one sentence caused Shelby to spit out her Peppy Cola in surprise and shock, she coughed repeatedly and Sam ran over and patted her on the pack repeatedly.

"Are you okay?" she asked and Shelby nodded simply, rubbing her throat and swallowing repeatedly. She took an ocean blue swan printed napkin and wiped her mouth before turning to Sam.

"Could you please explain to me how you lost your mind?" Shelby asked and Sam chuckled lightly, she took a deep breath and Shelby leaned back, knowing this was going to be a long story.


	6. Carly Who?

**Love the reviews, guys, thanks a bunch!**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't.**

**Chapter 6: Carly who?**

**Location: Freddie's bedroom.**

Freddie walked into his room and typed in the website for iCarly on the black keyboards on his laptop, he decided to check the iCarly website and make sure everything's in order. And by in order he means that Sam hasn't hacked his blog like she does ever so frequently.

As soon as he was sure everything was fine, he decided to re-watch the iCarly episode they did a few nights ago, hoping it would cure his intense boredom. After all, it did iCarly have amazing ratings.

"_I'm Carly!" _An ever cheery Carly said as she jumped into the camera shot, her black hair bouncing on her shoulders as she beamed widely, showing off her set of pearly whites.  
_"And I'm Sam!" _ Sam said as happily as Carly as she jumped into the shot and put an arm around Carly, smiling widely into the camera.

Freddie smiled to himself and shook his head slowly when she smiled, admiring it for a second before slapping his forehead before turning his attention back to the webshow.

"_And this is_," Carly said before pausing for dramatic effect. She turned to Sam and turned back to the camera, smiling.

"_iCarly_!" They cheered happily as Sam pressed the 'applause' button on her blue remote, dancing around in a small circle while throwing her sleeve-covered hands up in the air in excitement.

This act caused Freddie to laugh lightly as he smiled at her.

Throughout the entire episode he found himself staring at Sam in adoration, wondering why in the world he didn't lay his eyes on Carly for even a second unless the camera moved to her.

The camera moved to Carly and she tugged on her cotton black vest that she had worn over a light pink blouse with a black miniskirt. "It's time to play everyone's favorite game."  
Sam pressed the third button on the button on her blue remote, which activated the 'Spin The Wheel' jingle before laughing lightly with Carly.

As Sam laughed, Freddie found himself smiling widely as she did, her bubbly and excited energy really bounced off him. It was so enjoyable watching her that he simply couldn't stop. It was weird; he noticed every single little thing about her. How her blue eyes sparkled when she was excited, how her blonde hair bounced on her shoulders, which were covered with a black T-shirt that had the words _I don't make nice_ written all over it. And many, many more.

He loved all of those things though; he especially loved her witty remarks and sarcasm throughout the show. The strangest thing was that when Sam announced that Carly was going to hop on one foot while singing the national anthem while brushing her teeth with grape jelly, he asked himself a rather odd and shocking question, _Carly who?_

As soon as the camera moved to Carly, he realized that _Freddie Benson_ just asked himself who _Carly Shay _was.

Freddie immediately turned off his laptop and plopped onto his bed, staring at his ceiling with wide brown eyes, his heart was thumping and felt as if it was racing at the speed of light.

_What the heck…?_

**Location: Shelby's Training Room.**

Shelby drank the rest of her Peppy Cola before dumping it into the tiny decorated trashcan beside her and turned to face Sam, who was leaning on her chair and biting her lower lip slightly as she watched Shelby, anxiously waiting for her response.

Shelby readjusted her sitting position before tucking her brown hair behind her right ear, she scratched her head before shaking it slowly, trying to digest every single word Sam had said earlier.

"So let me get this straight," Shelby said after the long silence. Sam's head shot up followed by her crazy curls, she stared at Shelby with a strange expression on her face, it was somewhere between worry and fear. "You have a thing for the tech dork now?"

Sam shrugged before fidgeting with her curls, which was something she was doing the entire time she was explaining things earlier. "It's just, every time I'm near him I wanna strangle him with my own hands, but when I'm away from him I wanna strangle myself just to end the torture."

"Torture?" Shelby asked, raising an eyebrow. Her expression was somewhere between amused and confused. Sam nodded simply and Shelby sighed heavily. "Sam, you sound like a hopeless romantic!"

Sam sighed and nodded sadly.

"I know right," Sam said and banged her head on the head of her blue director's chair; she grabbed her can of Peppy Cola and took a sip. "I'm pathetic," she mumbled and took another sip of her Peppy Cola before gulping the whole drink down and dumping it in the trashcan angrily.

Shelby just stared at Sam, wondering how she could change from feeling worried and scared to feeling sad and self-pitiful to feeling angry and annoyed in just a few seconds.

Sam sighed heavily and ran her hands through her curls; Shelby folded her arms as she continued to stare at Sam.

"Why do you keep messing with your curls?" Shelby asked and Sam's head shot up again, she continued to cling onto her curls but looked as if she was trying her best not to.

"I don't know why," she said softly as if she was growing scared. "I just can't let go of them, it's like they're my life support."  
"So what dance are you doing with him?" Shelby asked as she took out a bag of potato chips and popping them in her mouth one by one.

Sam sighed heavily before biting her lower lip again, she finally managed to pull her hands away from her curls, which took a lot of strength and energy, and wiped them on her jeans. "The Latin tango."  
Shelby's eyes widened and her mouth dropped, which was Sam's expression when she first found out  
"Sam, why in on EARTH would you choose to dance the Latin tango with Freddie?" Shelby exclaimed as she threw her hands up in the air. "It's the most romantic dance known to man!"  
"I know that!" Sam yelled just as loud as Shelby. Sam shot up from her seat the same time Shelby did, looking at her with anger and exasperation. Her angry hate rays shooting out from her icy blue eyes pretty much said it all. "And I didn't choose the Latin tango, the Washington State Dance Competition did."

"Can you change it to something else?" Shelby asked once she calmed down and seated back in her light green director's chair as she messaged her temples with her black nail polish painted fingers repeatedly.  
Sam shook her head sadly and leaned against the head of the blue director's chair, tapping her converses on the cold checkered white and black pavement repeatedly as she twirled her curls with her two fingers.

Shelby looked at Sam and sighed heavily when she noticed she was still messing with her curls. She sat upright and nudged Sam with her foot, causing Sam to look away from her tousled blonde curls and back to Shelby, who was smiling sincerely. "Do you really wanna get all of your anger and frustration out when Freddork's not around?"  
Sam chuckled lightly and nodded, she hated it when someone other than her made fun of Freddie's name and used her nicknames for him, but when either Shelby or Carly did it. It usually amuses her.

Shelby nodded her head, "meet me here at exactly five twenty p.m. tomorrow," she said and Sam scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Why?" She asked.

"You'll see," she said before leaning against the chair and tying her brown hair into a loose ponytail and popping a piece of cherry-flavored bubble gum into her mouth before chewing it repeatedly and popping it.

"And no one will know about this right?" Sam asked as she tapped her fingers on Shelby's Math textbook which was lying on the white table beside her.

Shelby nodded as she chewed on the gum; she moved it to the right side of her mouth with her tongue. "Don't worry, the only people who know about this is you and me."  
Sam sighed softly before leaning against her chair again.

"And me," Larry's voice echoed from behind the door, causing Shelby and Sam to turn around and face it.

Shelby bit the insides of her mouth angrily before walking towards the door and punching it with all her strength, causing Larry to yell, "Ouch!" in pain.

"I won't tell," he said weakly from the other side of the door, causing Shelby to smile in satisfaction before chewing on her bubblegum again and popping it as victory overflowed her.

"Feels good doesn't it?" Sam asked as she rested her head on her right hand and Shelby smiled at her, knowing exactly what she meant.

"It feels really good."  
"That makes one of us," Larry mumbled angrily under his breath from the other side of the door, causing Shelby to kick the door with her foot angrily again before plopping on her director's chair and opening another can of Peppy Cola.

Some might say Shelby's addicted to the drink, and yes she kind of was but Sam was addicted to messing and fidgeting and clinging onto her curls. And she needed to break that habit. Luckily, Shelby knew just what to do.

**Hey guys! **

**Hope you liked this chapter, and I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a few days, but school is really driving me into a corner, but no matter what I will try and post as much as I can.**

**Anyways, what does Shelby want Sam to do in order to get all of her anger and frustration out?  
Guess you'll have to review to find out.**

**So click that button!**


	7. It's Not Spying, It's Science

**Wow, forty reviews and only seven chapters (counting this one). **

**Yay! I know, I'm pathetic but let me enjoy my moment! **

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there? Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't. For future references, I do not own ANYTHING that I mention here. Good? Good.**

**Chapter 7: It's not spying, it's Science.**

Sam rested her head on the arm of her worn out green L-shaped sofa which was in the middle of her living room; she glanced at the glowing lamp beside her. It was a cute gift from non other than Henry Puckett, Sam's dad. Sam continued to stare at the lamp unaware of the small smile across her face. Bright yellow rays came from the flower patterned lamp that sat on the table beside her, next to the white telephone.

Sam sighed and stared at it for a second before tearing her eyes away from it; she was in no mood to see something elegant and sweet. If she was, she would just go over to Carly's instead of lying on her living room couch eating on a tub of chocolate chip ice-cream while flipping through the channels mindlessly as she waited for the clock to ring five-thirty.

She landed on a random channel and stuck her spoon in the tub of ice-cream and scooped it up and licked her spoon. She turned her eyes to the TV and increased the volume, a bald man wearing a camouflage suit carrying in camping gear and smiling at the camera.

The mere sight of him made Sam grab the remote and flip the channels before hearing what he had to say. She landed on Moon World and Access Hollywood was on, the anchorwoman was talking endlessly about Ginger Fox and Wade Collin's wedding.

Sam decided that she should watch it since there was absolutely nothing else to watch.

"Hi everybody, today, I'm here with none other than Wade Collins and his fabulous fiancée Ginger Fox," the anchorwoman said excitedly as she gave a woman sitting on a black stool and holding hands with Wade Collins a warm smile.

Sam scrunched her eyebrows in confusion; there was absolutely no way this was Ginger Fox. The woman was wearing an elegant flower patterned black and white dress and a pearl necklace. Her wavy chocolate brown hair rested elegantly on her shoulders and her blue eyes twinkled with happiness.

"I can't believe that you're seriously a brunette," the anchorwoman said as she stared at the woman's hair with envy as she pressed her thin lips together. "I always thought you were a blonde."  
"Nope, I'm originally a brunette," the brunette said as she crossed her legs and smiled for the camera. She glanced at Wade's hands and played around with his fingers, smiling to herself before turning back to the anchorwoman. "Before I went to rehab I was very insecure. And I mean _very_ insecure."

Sam's mouth went open slightly when she realized the woman was indeed Ginger Fox, how else would they sound completely the same and have the same blue eyes?  
"I felt everything about me needed to change, and that includes my brown hair," Ginger said before letting out a long sigh of relief. "Ever since I was a kid, I was told that blondes have more fun. So I decided to dye my hair blonde."  
"And did you have more fun?" The anchorwoman asked as she raised her thin eyebrows in the air and tilted her head to the right, causing her black hair to fall with her head.

Ginger shook her head sadly and pouted, "No, I most definitely did not have more fun. The only "fun" I had was when I was performing at the Pop Music Awards."  
Sam remembered that, she remembered how bewildered she felt when her performance ended up being a huge success; she slowly shook her head and scanned the supposed Ginger Fox. No doubt about it, that's her.

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Gin," the anchorwoman said as she placed a comforting hand on Ginger's shoulder. She shook it gently and removed it before turning over to the camera and wiping a non-existing tear. "Ginger Fox's life was ruined. She lost all hope that she could be the happy carefree Gingerly Henrietta Foxanna that she once was."  
Sam's eyes widened; Gingerly Henrietta Foxanna was Ginger's _real_ name? Oh dear…

"And when all hope was lost, a certain Wade Collins appeared in her life," the anchorwoman said before turning back to the couple.

"Actually," Ginger interrupted while holding her hands in the air and looking to the camera; she paused and turned to Wade before giving him a worried look. Wade shook her shoulder gently and Ginger sighed to herself before turning back to the anchorwoman. "We met at the premiere of Harry Joyner's new movie, _A Heart for Art. _Wade was globing down every Fat Cake in sight and I was getting pissed, so, I approached him and told him it was impolite to eat all of the Fat Cakes and that he should leave some for others. He then shooed me away and continued eating them and we got into a huge fight."  
The anchorwoman scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, "_that's_ how you two met? Fighting over Fat Cakes?"  
Ginger shrugged and played with her wavy brown hair before licking her lips and sighing, "Yes, it took us two weeks to confront each other and apologize, but we got into _another_ fight five minutes after apologizing."  
The anchorwoman's eyes widened and her mouth slowly dropped, she turned to the camera in a complete loss for words. She scrunched her eyebrows together and turned back to Wade and Ginger. "Then… how did your engagement happen?"  
"It took this nub six months to propose," Ginger said, flicking Wade's head before rolling her eyes and smirking. That one act caused a small voice to ring in Sam's head exclaiming, "Yes! People like us can get together!"

This confused Sam up to a point she started wondering if she had suddenly gone mad and needed to be wheeled to the nearest hospital ASAP since she was practically going insane and hearing strange voices in her head.

She grabbed her cell phone which was sitting beside her and flipped it open before punching in Carly's number; she stopped halfway when she realized something.

_Calling Carls is probably the worst thing to do right now, considering how "helpful" her advice was the last time I called her._

Sam sighed and closed her cell phone and increased the volume of the TV as she tapped her foot on the warm brown rug below her and hugged a fuzzy purple pillow as she continued to stare at the TV with lazy blue eyes.

"I thought you two were like Romeo and Juliet or something, minus the age and time difference and the fact you two are actually _encouraged_ to see each other," the anchorwoman said as she tapped her foot on the ground, examining Wade and Ginger.

"That's just it, Lisa," Ginger said and turning to Wade, he had a big, goofy smile on his face and his eyes was twinkling. Ginger tucked her hair behind her ear and shook her head slowly as a small smile crept upon her face. "My life isn't a fairytale, but everyone assumes it is. For Pete's sake my life doesn't even come close to one! I'm selfish and insecure, not a sweet, kind, shy, gorgeous princess like the ones you read in fairytales. My life isn't a fairytale and I'm pretty sure yours isn't either. No one's life is, I bet that not one woman in this crazy messed up world has been swept off her feet by a Prince Charming without shedding a single tear for him."  
Sam rolled her eyes and smirked; as if she would ever cry over a guy! She was Sam Puckett for Pete's sake, there is absolutely no way she would cry over something as lame and ridiculous over a guy! She wasn't Bella Swan from Twilight who would cling onto a guy and cry her heart out the moment he breaks up with her!

This whole thing was one hundred percent, absolutely, completely jank! Well, to Sam at least. So a now offended and outraged Sam clicked off the TV with her remote angrily before throwing it aside as she kicked the leg of the coffee table which sat beside her.  
Sam sighed and threw her pillow to the armchair on the other side of the room as she turned around and glanced at the grandfather clock beside her, she then noticed it was already five thirty.

She got up and walked out and closed the door behind her. The sudden wave of the cold Seattle wind blew threw Sam's hair in the air and she pulled it back, the only problem was she had to hold her curls and place them back on her shoulders. Too bad it was impossible for her to let them go now.

* * *

"I just don't see why we have to move all the way here," Freddie said as he leaned against the head of the Eames chair he was currently seating on. He stared at the rest of his fellow AV Club members and they rolled their eyes, tired of explaining it over and over again.

"Because," Amy narrowed her green eyes as she lowered her issue of Tech Savvy, she pressed her lips together and silently groaned while rubbing her hands together in an attempt to calm herself down. "That Samantha girl ruined our AV equipments and Principle Franklin shipped us here. He insists that we keep our current location a secret so _she_ won't come back and wreck havoc again."  
"Sam wouldn't have smashed all of the equipments if you hadn't insulted her." Freddie replied as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Amy, who was biting the insides of her mouth angrily as if twisting her face as if she had just tasted something acidic.

"She's _your_ friend," Amy spat as she nudged Shawn angrily and gave him one last glare before turning back to Freddie. "Thus, I blame you."

"So if your friend robbed a bank, you should go to jail just because your friends with him?" Freddie said evenly.

Amy turned her attention back to the tech magazine and Freddie raised an eyebrow at her loss for words. He smirked in amusement as Amy continued to stare at her magazine.

"What's the matter?" Freddie asked in mock concern. "Cat got your tongue?"  
Amy sat her magazine down and looked at Freddie directly in his eyes, she was twitching and fuming with rage and Freddie just smiled at her, which angered her more. She was about to yell at him when Shawn grabbed her shoulders and shushed her by giving her a look.

"Remember what mom said? No more fighting," Shawn said as Amy folded her arms and huffed like a five year old girl who didn't get the toy she wanted. Shawn rolled his eyes and gave Freddie a warning look, which he dismissed with a wave in the air.

"You know what?" Amy asked as she got up and placed her hands on her candy colored sweater-covered hips and raised an eyebrow. "We're stuck here for the rest of the year, until the equipments are fixed. So let's just continue AV Club as usual, no whining or complaining from any of you. It's already time to go home; we wasted all of our time explaining this to Freddie."

Everyone turned to glare at Freddie, causing him to sink slowly in his chair and bring his AV Club handbook up to his nose.

"Dismissed," Amy said as she grabbed Shawn's arm and dragged him out of the room ferociously, everyone then silently followed and Freddie stuffed his handbook at the very end of his bag and slung it over his shoulder before leaving the room.

As he was walking on the streets, Derek Rockwell ran up to him.

"Hey dude," he said as he slung his bag over his shoulder and grabbed his elastic out of his pocket and twirled it around. "What's wrong?"

"I'm getting tired of Amy and her anger issues," Freddie said angrily as he continued to walk to the bus stop in front of him. Derek smirked and walked in front of him, blocking him from the path leading to the bus stop.

"What's the big deal, isn't it the same thing with Sam?" Derek asked, causing Freddie to stop in his tracks. He stood there, frozen in his steps as his thoughts began to race. Isn't it the same thing with Sam? Nope it most certainly isn't. Fighting with Sam caused a certain fire to run through his veins and his blood to boil. A wonderful and overwhelming feeling of elation and joy would go through him on the rare occasions he wins a fight. But with Amy, it was plain and normal. She wouldn't cause a great feeling of joy to flow through him if he won the fight. He'd just feel happy, but that's just it. Not extremely happy, just plain _happy_ for a few minutes. However, if Freddie won a fight with Sam he would feel happy for hours.  
He actually _enjoys_ fighting with her, but hates staying mad at her. The thing is Freddie simply cannot stay mad at Sam for long. It's impossible.

"Dude," Derek said as he waved his hand in front of Freddie's face, snapping him out of his thoughts. "What's wrong?"  
"Nothing," Freddie said as he continued to walk towards the bus stop, Derek scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion and looked to his right before grabbing Freddie and spinning him around.

"What?" Freddie asked, getting irritated. Derek pointed to his right in his response and Freddie turned to look at what he was pointing at. All he saw was the _Exclusive Training Centre for MMAs_ which was where Shelby Marx trained for ten hours a day. He turned to Derek, scrunching his eyebrows in confusion. "It's just the ETC, what's the big deal?"  
"Isn't that Sam?" Derek asked as he spun Freddie further to his right, there he saw Sam, walking up to the Exclusive Training Centre and looking over her shoulder before putting her hands on the door. Freddie's mouth dropped in shock and Derek's eyes widened with curiosity. "I wonder what she's doing here, let's find out."  
Before Freddie could respond, Derek grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the bushes behind the Training Centre, they ducked and Derek fished in his bagback and brought out two black binoculars.

"Here," he said, handing one of them to Freddie and bringing his own to his eyes as he pushed the buses away and started searching for someone. Freddie stared at his binocular and pressed his lips together. "I don't know, Derek. Isn't this spying?"  
Derek looked up and shook his head, "it's not spying; it's Science. We're just observing their behavior, from behind a plant."  
Freddie shrugged, still feeling that this was wrong.

"What's Sam doing with Shelby Marx?" Derek asked in shock, causing Freddie's eyebrows to rise and eyes to widen. So in a split second, he got into the same position Derek was and brought the binocular to his eyes and started searching for Sam.

There he saw her, walking up to Shelby and giving her a hug, they started talking and Shelby gestured for a guy who was fearfully holding a punching bag to leave. He ran away and Shelby closed the door behind him.

Freddie scrunched his eyebrows in confusion and wished he could hear what Sam and Shelby were talking about. Shelby grabbed a handful of Sam's blonde curls and started saying something to her. Sam's eyes got huge and she shook her head ferociously.

Shelby groaned and said something else to her and Sam started shaking Shelby's shoulders ferociously. Shelby started yelling at her and Sam groaned before taking out her cell phone and dialing in someone's number.

"Who do you think she's calling?" Derek asked and Freddie shrugged.

"No idea," he said.

All of a sudden, Freddie's phone began to ring. Derek and Freddie both dropped their binoculars in surprise and Freddie pulled out his phone from his pocket. He stared at the caller ID in shock; it was Sam.

**Hey guys! Yep, that's right I left a little cliffhanger there.**

**First of all, this is weird, is Freddie stalking Sam? Haha, yep, he most definitely is. Hey, don't give me that look, it's not spying, it's Science! I got that line from a Suite Life on Deck episode, I think London said that. **

**I hate Disney channel with all my heart but the Suite Life isn't **_**that**_** bad. It's somewhat decent. And I only watch it when there is absolutely nothing else on.**

**And second of all, what does Sam want? Why was Shelby holding her curls? What was she telling Sam that made her shake her head ferociously? Guess you'll have to review to find out.**

**BTW, if anyone can guess what Shelby told Sam, I'll give you a virtual tray of cookies!  
Review and tell me what you thought of this chapter. :) **


	8. In the Bushes

**Thanks for all the great reviews guys!**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't.**

**Chapter 8: In the Bushes.**

* * *

Freddie stared at his Pearphone in disbelief and gulped nervously before turning his attention to a stunned Derek who was staring at the ringing phone in horror. His green eyes moved swiftly from Freddie's phone to Freddie, who was trembling and shaking uncontrollably as his mouthed open slightly in fear. The phone continued to ring endlessly and Freddie's nerves began to jumble up and his knees began to shake uncontrollably. The phone stops ringing for a while, causing both Derek and Freddie to let out a sigh of relief. Derek rolled back his shoulders and rubbed his suddenly aching temples and Freddie's breathing starts to even out as he turns around to retrieve the two pairs of binoculars lying on the slightly wet green grass. His phone starts to ring again and a lump immediately forms in Freddie's throat and his knees begin to shake uncontrollably again while Derek looks around the area with worried green eyes. Freddie breathes in and out slowly in a failed attempt to calm his jumbled up nerves.

"Is it _her_?" Derek mouthed as he turned around and glanced fearfully at Sam while ducking under the massive pile of prickly bushes.

"Yep," Freddie whispered back before biting his lower lip and ducking under the bushes with Derek while flipping his phone open and bringing it to his left ear with his left hand and bringing his pair of binoculars to his eyes with his right hand, watching Sam and Shelby give deadly looks to each other as Sam narrows her icy blue eyes and taps her fingers icily on the white table beside her.

"Hey Sam," Freddie said somewhat shakily as he moved the barbed leaves away from his face, looking at Sam as she continued to tap her fingers bitterly on the books. Her eyes were narrowed, she was breathing heavily, her foot was tapping on the checkered floor and she was biting her lower lip angrily. She looked extra scary today, which made Freddie feel like running away in utter fear and never coming back. But he managed to stay somewhat calm.

"Hey," she said, sounding infuriated. Sam turned to Shelby when she noticed her sudden glare and let out a long sigh before softening her tone. "Lemme just cut to the chase; the Washington State Dance Competition is coming up in less than five weeks and we don't have anything prepared."

"Yeah," Freddie said, still struggling to keep the bushes from pricking his arms. Derek, however, seemed to be completely comfortable in his position, the bushes didn't seem to bother him at all. He was too busy admiring Shelby from afar. Sam gave Shelby a look and she gave Sam an innocent smile, knowing that's what Sam would do if she was in her position. "WSDC has dance rehearsal rooms for each contestant, ours is room twelve at the Washington State Competitions Headquarters."

"Okay, so when do we rehearse?" Freddie asked, rubbing his pricked arms against his cheek since he needed his left hand to hold his phone up. Small pricks of the bushes were on Freddie's arm and blood started oozing out, he blew on his arm for a few seconds before turning back to Sam and Shelby, who were staring each other down.

"Tomorrow," Sam paused and turned away from Shelby as she grabbed her curls and started fidgeting with them. Shelby folded her arms and bit the insides of her mouth as she watched Sam mess with her curls with narrowed eyes, she shook her head in disapproval and Sam just rolled her eyes and tried her best to avoid meeting Shelby's brown ones. "Four p.m."

"Wait, that's one hour after school, are you sure you can handle just _one_ hour of rest after seven _long_ hours of school?" Freddie teased lightheartedly as he stretched out the word 'long', it was kind of their little joke. Sam had once complained that school was unnecessarily long and Freddie said that it shouldn't be a problem for her since she is usually asleep half of the time and is only awake when she absolutely has to be or during art class.

Sam rolled her eyes in amusement as the icy glare on her face got replaced by a small amused smile. She shook her head slowly and her magical blonde curls shook gently along with her head, Freddie smiled with relief and his eyes twinkled with happiness when he realized that he made Sam smile.

Derek looked to his right and saw Freddie wearing the same smile that he saw Sam wearing not too long ago, he examined him and chuckled lightly to himself before turning back to stare at Shelby with adoration.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Sam said with heavy sarcasm as she let go of her blonde locks unknowingly, this caused Shelby to scrunch her eyebrows together when she noticed this. The dark aspects of the shiny florescent lights above them radiated off Shelby's tanned skin, and Derek's dark blue eyes twinkled and shimmered with admiration and adoration. Shelby narrowed her warm brown eyes at her abrasive blonde friend. She nodded, understanding her friend's silent commandment.

"So anyway, tomorrow at four p.m.?" confirmed Sam, tapping her glitter-encrusted nails rhythmically on the acorn-colored tabletop.

"Yep, but where exactly is the Washington State Competitions Headquarters?"

"Just beside the Crown Ridge Mall," responded Sam, sounding as if she was talking to a nine-year-old. "It's the big building with the gigantic letters that say WSDC." She paused for dramatic effect, her soft voice awash with sarcasm. "The letters are in red."

Freddie rolled his eyes as Sam began reaching into the cooler and for another can of Peppy Cola. As soon as her porcelain skin made contact with the ice-cold can, loud and horror-filled screams and bumps and thumps were heard on the other side of the line. This caused her to drop the can and shoot up from her seat in surprise and worry. "Freddie?" she asked, and her voice was soft and concerned, that tone was extremely rare when it comes to Sam. This alerted Shelby and she immediately looked up from her Science textbook.

"I'm fine," Freddie said breathlessly from the other side of the line. Derek had unfortunately fallen over somewhere in the process of admiring Sam's beautiful friend and somehow managed to take Freddie down with him, and they were now lying on the ground. Freddie's arm was blistered and scratched, due to him rolling down and the prickly bushes. Derek was also slightly injured, but he only had one small cut on his elbow. Other than that, he was perfectly fine.

"You don't sound fine," stated Sam as she twirled with her golden locks nervously, her feet tapping on the ground repeatedly as she bit her fingernails. She slowly sat back in her seat as the sounds of heavy breathing began to die down. Shelby's gaze never strayed from Sam, consumed with utter confusion. Shelby merely expected Sam to face her fears and confront the Benson boy, hoping it would make Sam come to her senses.

"I am," Freddie protested as he got up and ran his fingers through his hair, he then ducked under the bushes and made sure Sam wouldn't see him from the large window in Shelby's training room. He then quietly and quickly retreated back to the bushes, hiding himself under the massive piles and piles of prickly bushes. It was terribly uncomfortable, but he greatly preferred it over facing Sam and Shelby's combined wrath.

"Okay," Sam said uncertainly as she bit her lower lip harshly, causing some Cherry Chap Stick to sink into her mouth. Shelby nudged Sam, lifting up a shining yellow cue card, with the red words _apologize _written on the very centre. Sam narrowed her bright blue eyes and shook her head vigorously, only for Shelby to throw her another one of her intimidating, famous, Carly-like death glares. Sam gave a long, drawn-out, heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry," she rushed, her voice filled with reluctance and annoyance.

"Huh?" Freddie asked, utterly shocked.

"Don't expect me to say it again."

Freddie rubbed the back of his neck as he watched Derek helplessly stumble over the grass and rubbing his now grass-stained knees as he made his way over to the bushes. "Why are you apologizing to me?"

Sam let out a long sigh, which caused an uncomfortable silence to fill the air. They stood there, waiting for someone to speak up and say something. None of them did. Sam, realizing Freddie was waiting for an answer, decided to break the silence, "I heard about the AV Club moving to a 'secret location'."

"Oh… that. Listen, it's nothing"

"No, it isn't nothing, it's something alright." Sam said as she grabbed the Peppy Cola and took another sip while turning around to glance at Shelby. Who was looking around the room uneasily and shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she struggled to stay focused on her Science textbook. She grabbed her French textbook and tried her best to stay focused, but failed. Sam had a weird feeling too, as if someone was watching her every move. She ignored it and continued, "If I didn't ruin all of your AV equipment, none of this would happen."

The weird feeling of pity and guilt that ran through Freddie that he felt when Sam told them that Ernie had fallen off the stage and she was partner-less for the WSDC flowed through him again. He knew for a fact it wouldn't go away until he made Sam feel better.

"It's not your fault, its Amy's," Freddie said quickly as he shoved the pesky bushes away from him. "She should've kept her mouth shut; she just can't help herself sometimes. She has a sudden need to insult every single person that she meets; the only exception is her twin, Shawn."

There was another long silence, Sam took a deep breath and tapped her foot on the floor again before sitting upright and flipping her blonde bangs out of her eyes. "Well, I gotta go now."

"'Kay," was all Freddie managed to say. Sam turned off her phone and turned back to Shelby and started saying something to her. They started talking on and on about something, they seemed to be arguing about something, but Freddie wasn't entirely sure.

Shelby stopped talking and looked around her; she looked tense and uneasy while she rubbed her hands on her arms repeatedly. Sam said something to her and Shelby gritted her teeth and began to say something as well. Her hazel eyes widened and she looked outside the window before saying something, the corners of her mouth looked like she was saying someone's name. Freddie couldn't make it out though, but she was staring directly at the window, he looked at her mouth carefully and gasped when he realized Shelby was screaming Derek's name repeatedly as Sam got out of her chair and looked outside the window Shelby was screaming at.

Freddie ran out of the bushes in a flash and headed to the bus stop, he didn't dare to look back. No way, he wasn't insane! But something made him; he turned around and saw Shelby and Sam dashing out of Shelby's training room, looking extremely aggravated. He continued running and left poor Derek to face the wrath of Shelby Marx and Sam Puckett all alone, which was every guy's nightmare.

Freddie hopped on the bus and leaned his head against the window as his thoughts start to run wild, thinking what happened with Shelby, Sam and Derek. He flung onto his bed and his Pearphone started to ring repeatedly again. He grabbed it out of his pocket and brought it to his ear, not even bothering to check who it was.

"Freddork?" Sam asked angrily. "Did you know your stalker of a friend Derek was spying on Shelby and me?"

"Derek?" Freddie asked, trying to sound shocked and surprised as he fumbled with his fingers nervously. The annoying lump in his throat was still there and his knees were wobbly and shaking again, he seriously hated how easily scared he got when he was around Sam when she was angry. "He was spying on you two? Why?"

"I dunno," Sam said. Freddie could faintly hear screaming and yelling from Shelby, he assumed Shelby was screaming at Derek for spying on her. Since this wasn't the first time it happened.

"Just go and tell your friend to leave us alone."

"Or what?" Freddie asked as he brought an issue of _Tech Savvy_ towards his face. Sam growled angrily from the other side of the line as the faint screaming began to fade away. "I'm sorry Mr. Benson," Sam said in a monotone voice, with all the enthusiasm of a mortician, and her anger was clear and apparent. "If you really don't like your room, I could happily get Sam Puckett to send you in a nice, comfy hospital ward!"

"Okay, okay," Freddie said as he brought his shaking hands up in the cold air. "I'll make sure he leaves you two alone."

"You better," Sam snapped before hanging up her phone and Freddie sighed before bringing an issue of Tech Savvy up to his face. He sighed and fumbled over the pages, half of him was glad that Shelby and Sam didn't see him hiding in the bushes, but another half of him wished that he knew what Shelby and Sam were arguing about. It seemed really important. Sam turned back to Shelby and Derek. Derek was rubbing his cheek which Shelby had recently slapped with a ward of cash and Shelby was smirking evilly, enjoying Derek's pain. "Now leave," she pointed to the white door and Derek dashed out.

Shelby sighed heavily and plopped on her director's chair as she took out another can of Peppy Cola and took a hearty sip. Sam sat beside her and put her hand on her cheek, digesting every word Shelby had said to her earlier.

Shelby was right, she needed to break the habit of holding onto her curls whether she likes it or not. Plus, tomorrow she'll be rehearsing with Freddie and she couldn't be curl-obsessed otherwise Freddie would start asking questions. She turned to Shelby and nudged her.

"Shelbs," she began as she bit her lower lip again, Shelby raised an eyebrow in curiosity and placed her Peppy Cola on the white table. "Yeah?"

"You're right," Sam breathed as she fidgeted with her curls mindlessly again, mentally kicking herself for touching them once again. "I need to break it."

"So… will you do it?" Shelby asked hopefully as she leaned forward, her straight brown hair rested on her shoulders and her outgrown bangs were sticking onto her lip-gloss covered mouth, but she didn't care about it. All she wanted was for Sam to _finally_ accept her suggestion.

"Yes," Sam said after a long pause. Shelby let out a girlish squeal before grabbing her fuzzy blue schoolbag and pulled the zipper open. She fished through her bag and pulled out a black and gold object that Sam loathed.

She spun Sam around like a hairdresser and brought the object to Sam's blonde curls; she gripped the object and gulped. "Are you sure?"

"Completely," Shelby said proudly as she gave Sam a toothy smile. She moved her bangs to the side and brought the object to Sam's curls again. "Now let's straighten those curls!"

Sam gulped as Shelby brought the hair-straightener to her blonde curls; Shelby smiled and began straightening Sam's curls as Sam gripped the arms on her director's chair as hard as she possibly could.

* * *

**Well, it's all out in the open now. Shelby was talking about straightening Sam's hair, congrats to Brown-eyed-blondie for almost getting the answer correctly.**

**Oh well, you still get a virtual tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies! *Hands over cookies*.**

**BTW, for all the anonymous readers out there, anonymous reviews are allowed now! Wahoo! *Applause*. So what are you guys waiting for? Click that review button and tell me what you thought of this chapter!**


	9. Ignorance

**Hey guys, thanks a billion for the amazing reviews. So sorry about the lack of update, but here it is! BTW, some people ask about iGo to Italy and why it hasn't been updated yet, you see something went wrong in my laptop and all of the future chapters for iGTI were erased. I've been trying my best to rewrite them, I'm almost done. It'll take a few more weeks, though.  
****Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't.**

**Chapter 9: Ignorance isn't Sam's best friend.**

Shelby straightened out the last of Sam's blonde curls before setting the steaming hair-straightener in her bag. She turned back to Sam, her icy blue eyes were shut and her lips were pressed together, she looked like a six year old girl who was afraid to go to the dentist. Shelby let out a long sigh before giving Sam a nudge, her blue eyes immediately snapped open as she turned to look at Shelby, who was picking up a black mirror that was lying on the white table. Sam grabbed the mirror out of Shelby's hands in a split second and examined her now straightened blonde locks. She could have sworn the moment she saw her newly straightened hair her heart took a deep plunge as she stared at her reflection, she looked so… strange. So different, this was the exact reason Sam didn't want her hair straightened; her curls were a part of her so now that they're gone, what would people think? Screw them what would Carly and Spencer think? Sam reluctantly spun around her director's chair and looked at Shelby straight in her hazel eyes.

"I hate it," she said as chewed on her lower lip, causing Shelby to silently groan.

"Why?" Shelby asked as she plopped onto her director's chair and ran her hands through her hair in exasperation, she looked at Sam with frustrated hazel eyes as she pressed her lips together, "you look great."

Sam shook her head, missing the feeling of her blonde curls bouncing on her shoulders. "Hardly," Sam ran her hands through her straight blonde locks, missing the soft feeling of her strawberry-scented curls in between her fingers. Shelby sighed heavily as Sam put the mirror on the white table in front of her. "I hate this hair."  
"Well too bad," Shelby said, shocking both Sam and herself with her unusual display of anger. Shelby sighed and rubbed her aching temples as Sam tapped her fingers on the table, keeping quiet. Shelby threw the can into the rubbish bin angrily. "Sam, c'mon, I wasted my entire Sunday afternoon helping you out with this."  
"I didn't ask you to," Sam mumbled under her breath as she leaned against the chair and crossed her arms, causing Shelby to roll her eyes. Shelby grabbed Sam's shoulders and shook them gently, "well you have to deal with straight hair for the time being." She searched Sam's blue eyes and shook her shoulders one last time before gulping down the rest of her Peppy Cola and dumping it into the trashcan. "Just try it, please?"  
Sam let out a long sigh before glancing at her watch and tapping her foot on the ground, Shelby gave her a pleading look and Sam rolled her eyes as she bit the insides of her mouth. "Fine."

Sam ran her hands through her hair one last time before getting up; she rubbed her burning eyeballs and walked towards the door. "I gotta go home."

"Bye," Shelby said halfheartedly as she grabbed her boxing gloves and flipped her hand phone over; she dialed in Larry's number and asked him to come over to train. Sam opened the door and walked out of Shelby's training room, she walked towards the bus stop. As she went in the bus, her phone beeped and she flipped it open only to find a text from Kara.

**From: Mom.**

**Message: Samantha, I'm going to visit grandma for the next three days in Florida, in the meantime, stay at Carly's. By the way, I left Frothy at the vet; pick him up at exactly seven o'clock. **

Sam brought her blue digital watch to her face and groaned at the time; 7:30 p.m. She banged her head on the head of the bus seat repeatedly and rested her head against the window, staring at the window. She chewed on her lower lip repeatedly as she drummed her fingers on her leg, silently cussing Kara for leaving everything to Sam, as usual.

* * *

Carly leaned her head on the arm of the living room couch as the TV blasted a Cuttlefish song, her straight black locks fell over the arm of the chair and she was lying sideways, a blue rhinestone print blanket laid across her denim jeans. She wiggled her perfectly manicured toes as she checked her makeup with her hot pink compact.

"Hey kiddo," Spencer said enthusiastically as he walked down the wooden stairs of the Shay apartment, as cheery as ever. Carly looked up and smiled softly at him as she moved her side bangs to the right, "hey adult-o." she turned to her manicured nails and grabbed a nail-filer that was lying on the coffee table in front of her and began to file her long, manicured nails mindlessly as she hummed along to the lyrics of the song that was playing on the TV.

"Whatcha doing?" Spencer asked as he pulled out a jar of cherry lemonade and poured it into a red cup, Carly let out a long sigh before pressing her highly-glossed lips together as she continued to file her nails.

"Filing nails," she said, boredom coloring her tone. She then remembered something and sat upright before putting her nail filer back on the coffee table. "Did you sign the contract?"  
"Sign, sealed, delivered," Spencer said, walking over to his teenage sister and handing her the contract. She examined it and turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "are you seriously gonna stop pranking?"

"Uh, I believe the contract says 'I, Spencer Shay, hereby promise to never prank anyone ever again as long as I shall live' so yes, I will stop pranking." Spencer said as he set down his cherry lemonade-filled glass on the coffee table and plopped next to Carly, who was going over the contract.

"It says as long as 'ye' shall live." Carly corrected, shoving the contract into her brother's face as she rolled her hazel eyes. Spencer grabbed the contract away from her and placed it at his right.

"Ye, he, fe, me, whatever," Spencer rolled his eyes and began surfing the channel as Carly grabbed her nail-filer and began filing her nails again. A heavy silence flowed as Spencer watched Celebrities Underwater and Carly filed her nails mindlessly as she pressed her lips together. The door bell rang and Carly got up and walked towards the door, she opened it and saw her best friend holding her vicious and lovable three-legged cat, Frothy, in her arms. This would have been totally normal; if Sam's usually curled blonde locks weren't straight. It was a strange sight; Carly had never expected Sam to straighten her curls since they spoke so much about Sam, unruly and sweet-looking. Not that Sam was the slightest bit close to sweet, she just looked sweet, and that's all.

"Hey," Carly said, stepping aside so Sam could enter. She walked in running her hands through the rabid cat's fur.

"Sup," she said, not seeming –or sounding– the slightest bit happy. She plopped onto the couch next to Spencer and set her cat on the floor; it ran to the kitchen happily and began prancing around the kitchen rug happily.

"Not to sound rude or anything but why are you here?" Carly asked as she sat next to Sam, looking at her with concern. "You okay?"  
"I'm fine, it's just that my mom went to Florida to visit my grandma," Sam paused and looked at the wall with a distant look in her eyes. It was somewhere in between anger and grief, "and I was wondering whether I could stay here for awhile."

"Sure," Carly blurted, almost too enthusiastically. She couldn't help herself, though; she had been spending so little time with Sam lately that she missed her. But she wasn't in fault either, ever since Wendy announced that she was moving to England Carly was determined to make her final days in Seattle worthwhile.

"Seriously?" Sam said with a look of hope in her icy blue eyes, which were usually filled with an evil spark or a look of satisfaction, hope was hardly ever seen in Sam's icy, cold blue eyes.

Carly nodded and Sam attacked her with a hug, which caused Carly to scrunch her eyebrows together in confusion; Sam was acting rather strange today, but she decided to let her be. It was almost impossible to get a confession out of Sam, plus, she seemed so happy right now. She just hoped these constant changes of mood wouldn't last long and Sam would be the same, normal Sam Puckett that she always was.

"Oh by the way, what's up with the straight hair?" Carly asked and Sam stiffened, she let go of Carly and looked at her toes.

"Nothing, just trying something new for a change," she said before getting up and scooping Frothy of the kitchen rug before running up the wooden stairs, Carly scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion before glancing at Spencer, who also seemed confused.

"If you need me I'll be in my room," she said before walking into the guest room with her cat in her arms.

"Weird," Spencer said, scrunching his eyebrows as he drank his cherry lemonade and Carly nodded slowly in agreement as she brought her manicured nails to her cherry lipstick-coated lips and began to chew on her nails, feeling extremely petrified all of a sudden. Something was up with Sam, and she was determined to find out what exactly was bugging her meat-loving best friend.

* * *

Sam fussed and fumbled and groaned as she moved around in her bed, feeling extremely exasperated with the room. She was wearing one of Carly's usual pajamas; lime green tank top and royal blue short shorts, she didn't feel right. The room smelt like a mix of vanilla scented candles and rosewater, the sheets felt like a cotton candy and the bed felt soft and comfy. It was nice, for a minute, but then everything became unfamiliar, strange and uncomfortable. She didn't like it that way; she missed her room, her bed and her furniture plainly because they were hers. Everything in the room gave her a sense of security and love, something that she enjoyed very much. But here, she didn't feel safe and loved, she felt cold and exposed.

Which was weird, considering the numerous times she had slept over Carly's, she felt comforted and safe, but now she felt the complete opposite. She felt worried and insecure.  
Unable to sleep, Sam got out of bed and turned on ransacked the drawers before grabbing one of Carly's old nightlights and turning it on, she glanced at her sleeping cat and sighed heavily before looking through Carly's massive pile of books, but all she got were those love books that Carly loved. She sighed and rolled her eyes before grabbing a random book. She groaned in frustration when she read the name; Romeo and Juliet.

Shrugging, she held the nightlight to the pages so she could read them; it wasn't like she had anything better to do. What surprised her was how much she loved the book.

Sam read and read and digested every single word, she was so engrossed in the book that she didn't even notice the sun rise or the fact that Carly had walked into her room, scratching her tousled black locks with her right hand and rubbing her eyes with her left.  
"Hey Sam, we gotta get ready for—" Carly stopped talking when she realized Sam was reading her Romeo and Juliet book, her icy blue eyes staring at the book intensely as she bit her lower lip. Carly walked over to Sam and nudged her, causing the blonde to tear her eyes away from the book and looked at Carly.

"Hey," Sam yawned, stretching her arms and legs as she set down her book and Carly eyed her, still taking a moment to process the fact that Sam was actually reading her book. Sam rubbed her burning eyeballs and walked dove under the sheets, pulling them over her and closing her tired blue eyes and slowly drifting to sleep.

Carly was swaying her head humming to another Cuttlefish song and tapping her foot, she then turned to Sam and noticed she was falling asleep, she threw a pillow at her and Sam immediately shot up, looking around with alerted blue eyes. "What?"  
"Get ready for school," Carly said as she crossed her arms across her plain light pink tank top as she tapped her black flip-flops on the fuzzy blue rug below her. Sam groaned reluctantly and banged her head gently against the wall.

"I don't wanna," she whined as she closed her tired eyes, Carly rolled her own and dragged Sam out of bed and walked down the wooden stairs, Sam followed behind her unenthusiastically and rubbed her tired eyes, her mind burning with quotes from the book.

After a blurry breakfast and an even blurrier shower, Sam changed into plaid white and brown shirt, black jeans and a black vest, she ran her hands through her hair and sighed sadly when she experienced the flat feeling through her fingers instead of her soft curls.

_Suck it up, Puckett it's just hair, _she told herself over and over as she walked down the stairs of the Shay apartment, slinging her red and black checkered bagback over her shoulder.

Carly was sitting on her couch checking through her black schoolbag, looking through her English homework and making sure everything was in order. She grabbed her small white notebook and flipped to the middle of the page before taking out a sparkly light blue pen and ticking some squares in her check lists before putting it back into her bag. She flipped her black locks over her shoulder before snagging a piece of bacon of the plate; the smell reached the staircase causing Sam to dash for the plate of bacon. Carly immediately stood up and put her hands in the air, grabbing the plate of bacon beside hers and Sam dug into her bacon, feeling ravenous all of a sudden.

The wooden front door of the Shay apartment opened and Carly and Sam turned around, their pearly white teeth both sunk into their juicy bacon. Freddie closed the door behind him and stepped into the apartment. "Let's go."  
Sam turned around and gave Carly a look, "he's coming with us?"  
Carly rolled her eyes and slung her schoolbag over her shoulder before giving Sam a quick nod and running to Spencer's room, she knocked on his door three times and yelled his name repeatedly before stepping back to let Spencer come out of the room. When he finally did, he grabbed his keys of the counter and started yelling, "Okay, home fries time let's drive to that place with the books and the… teachers!"  
Carly sighed and crossed her arms, Sam groaned and Freddie just rolled his eyes before throwing the door open and walked to the parking lot before driving to school in Spencer's car. There was a heavy silence on the way to school, Sam was thinking about her mother, Carly was wondering why Sam was acting so strange the day before and Freddie was simply feeling guilty of his spying and worried that Derek spilled that he was with him in the bushes and that he didn't spy alone.

Ignorance filled the atmosphere and Sam groaned silently; it was certainly not her best friend.

**So… what did you think? Was it great, okay, decent, somewhat decent or terrible, appalling, dreadful and the worst thing you have ever read? Tell me in your reviews! I am SO sorry of my lack of updating, but with schoolwork AND homework AND the fact something went wrong and all the iGo to Italy chapters got deleted and I'm trying so hard to rewrite all of them, I hope you see why I'm not updating so frequently.  
****Oh and what did you guys think of iGet Pranky? There were TONS of Seddie moments, it was also hilarious! Spencer's dancing was hilarious, also Sam having a crush on Spencer? That's new. Freddie's face when she said that was also SEDDIE GOLD! Okay, I'm done now.**

**Review please :)**


	10. Rehearsals

**What, did you guys think I dropped off the planet or something? Sorry, I've been busy writing Victorious fanfictions (Speaking of which, Bade shippers please read my oneshot Shattering Dust, I guarantee you will not be disappointed!) and finishing up iGo to Italy. Oh well, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Dudes, how many times do we have to go through this? ****Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I _look _like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't.**

******Chapter 9: Rehearsals.**

* * *

Sam sighed heavily, her arms crossing and uncrossing as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Carly groaned slightly in exasperation, annoyed by her best friend's distracting movements as she continued to feverishly copy down the notes Mr. Jones had written down on the board. Sam's blue eyes were constantly drawn to the black and white classroom clock on the wall, and she felt as if the clock was mocking her anxiety.

Beside her was Freddie, going over his notes and examining his assay. The tapping of Mr. Jones's fountain blue pen intruded his ear and his eyes wandered over to the clock. His heartbeat quickened when he realized he was running slow on time and continued to scribble and erase on his notebook. Sam, who's notebook unsurprisingly remained empty, saw this as an opportunity to get some fun during the last few minutes of six period. She nudged Freddie challengingly, a small smirk naturally making its way over to her lips. Freddie looked away from his notebook to a smirking Sam, who was silently challenging him with her eyes. Quickly, they began a silent eye conversation.

_Not now. _He told her firmly before turning back to his notebook and pen, Sam sighed in annoyance, not giving up on her attempt to have at least a laugh. She nudged Freddie again with more force than before, causing the annoyed brunette to groan slightly.

_NO_. He repeated, his chocolate brown eyes molding into hers. Sam raised an eyebrow, not giving up as she crossed her arm and tapped her foot, more determined than ever. She noticed she was only ten minutes away from having some fun and nudged him again.

_Stop being such a pansy_. Her blue eyes told his brown ones, the temptation began to get the better of him, and he nudged her back in hopes of shutting her up. But, alas, she mistook it for him joining in and nudged him back. Freddie sighed, noticing the little amount of words scribbled onto his notebook. He continued to write down the words until he felt a shoulder nudge his.

Annoyed, he unintentionally grabbed Sam's arm fiercely and put it back, which was a big mistake. Unbeknown to him, Sam mistook this for being ordered around by him. Everyone knew Sam Puckett hated being told what to do, and would to anything to define the order she had been given. So, she pushed Freddie with all of her strength, which caused him to fall over the tiles and caused his desk to collapse onto the floor.

The loud crash alerted everyone in the classroom, and caused them to divert their eyes from their work to a scarlet Freddie lying on the ground, and Sam couldn't help but laugh at his pathetic sight and Carly had to bite her lower lip to prevent from laughing. Mr. Jones, however, didn't find it as funny as his students (who were currently laughing and hi-fiving each other) and walked up to Freddie, his eyebrows scrunched together and his lips pursed.

"Mr. Benson," Mr. Jones spoke with a condescending tone which caused a chill to go down Freddie's spine. "I suppose you have an explanation for your unexpected clumsiness because despite the fact that everyone in the class finds amusement out of your pain, I find it irritating and detention-worthy for disrupting class." Freddie's eyes immediately widened at the mention of detention and went on his knees, begging for a second chance, which caused Sam to laugh even harder.

"Sam," Carly hissed angrily, nudging the laughing blonde beside her. "Tell Mr. Jones it wasn't Freddie's fault." Sam shook her head as she clutched her stomach, desperately trying to stop her hiccuping laughs as she gasped for air, a dampness invading her eyes. Carly growled slightly, crossing her arms.

"You have to, if you don't, you'll miss rehearsals for the WSDC," She reminded, wagging her finger in motherly fashion. Sam's laughter immediately died down and a look of shock stole her face and she realized Carly was right. Sam reluctantly yelled over the laughter in an attempt to get Mr. Jones's attention and ignored the satisfied looks from Carly as she leaned back, getting ready for the show.

"Yes, Ms. Puckett?" Mr. Jones asked, clearly annoyed by being interrupted.

"Um, it wasn't Fredlo—_Freddie's _fault he tripped," Sam said reluctantly, a groan escaping her lips automatically. Carly rolled her eyes out of habit as she continued to study Mr. Jones's unchanging expression as he stared at Sam, his tanned hands still gripping Freddie's collar tightly. He arched an eyebrow and let go of Freddie's collar, which caused him to let out a relieved sigh.

"If it wasn't him than who did it?" Mr. Jones asked, leaving the question hanging in the air. An uncomfortable and heavy silence occurred, leaving Sam uncomfortable and resistant and unsure of what to say. She could admit that it was her who disrupted class, but then she'll get detention and miss rehearsals, which she can't afford to happen. But what else could she do? Blame it on Gibby would result in an endless lecture from Carly when she gets back from rehearsals, which she would hate more than anything.

"Ms. Puckett, it wasn't you, was it?" Mr. Jones asked, crossing his arms. Sam bit her lower lip, unsure of what to say. She opened her mouth but quickly shut it when she realized she didn't have a response before exchanging a worried look with Carly, who was fully aware of the spot Sam had been placed in. Sighing, Sam opened her mouth to admit the truth but was cut off by Carly.

"Mr. Jones, I did it," Carly lied, her voice shaking slightly. Everyone stopped talking immediately and gave Carly a shocked look, including Sam, Freddie and even Mr. Jones. She sighed heavily and nodded in confirmation, causing Mr. Jones to eye the room in shock, speechless for a minute.

"I'm very shocked that you would even think of doing such a thing, Ms. Shay," Mr. Jones replied, shaking his head slightly. Carly nodded weakly, her eyes firmly on her maroon and black sneakers. Sam swallowed a lump in her throat and ignored the look Freddie gave her, a guilty look immediately stole her face.

The school bell rang and everyone got up, handed their notebooks to Mr. Jones and left the classrooms, whispering animatedly. Carly attempted to leave the classroom with Sam and Freddie but was pulled back by Mr. Jones, and gave him a shocked look.

"Carly, I would like to have a word with you," Mr. Jones said in all seriousness and Carly nodded her head silently, her eyes lingering on Sam and Freddie as he pulled her back, gesturing for the two speechless teens to leave the classroom. Sam gave Carly a halfhearted wave and reluctantly left the classroom, dragging Freddie along with her.

Freddie held back the "What were you thinking?" which was threatening to escape his lips. He knew the consequences of lecturing Sam, yelling at her or even talking her during a time like this. He didn't need to give her a tongue-lashing, since he already knew she was remorseful and regretful of her actions since it landed her best friend in detention. She stayed unusually silent throughout the car ride, her blue eyes locked on the road in front of her as an unreadable expression stole her face.

"She won't blame you," Freddie whispered before he could stop himself, his eyes staring at the rain as the car drives by the streets. Sam didn't reply, but just nodded slightly to acknowledge his statement and continue to drive faster, the unreadable look in her eyes suddenly disappearing as she stopped driving and parked the car.

"We're here," She breathed, getting out of the car and slamming the door. She tugged on her straight blond locks, her hands shaking slightly due to her racing thoughts as she opened the door. Freddie followed behind her, not breathing a word and keeping his thoughts to himself, knowing Sam could blow up any minute (he prefers his limbs attached to his body, anyways). They walked on a seemingly endless path, the heavy silence made Sam and Freddie feel uneasy and uncomfortable, but it was better than talking since Sam's mind is slightly in a whirl.

"Samantha!" A quirky scream snapped Sam out of her temporary trance, her hands clenching into tight fists automatically, whoever dared to call Sam by her full name was obviously suicidal. Sam turned around, her eyes filled with fury as she saw a very peppy seventeen-year-old girl with long red hair which was tied into a high ponytail skipping over to her and giving her an unexpected hug.

"Sam," She exclaimed, a toothy grin on her perfectly glossed lips. Sam raised her eyebrow in confusion as she examined the girl in front of her, her mind rewinding and trying to remember where she's seen her before. The redhead sighed heavily, tugging on her ponytail in exasperation.

"Everyone always forgets me," She stated glumly, rolling her eyes and pouting slightly. "I'm Clair Underwood from the Chicago Dance Competition, the one who lost to you in the big finale because I couldn't do high kicks, cartwheels, backflips and bend as low as you could. The one who's sister gave you bacon-flavored bubblegum as compensation when I accidentally ripped your dress?"

"Now I remember you," Sam said with a smile, the memory of the bacon-flavored bubblegum coming into contact with her tongue made her smile. She then paused, remembering something. "Tell your sister thanks for me, and do you happen to have anymore of that bacon bubblegum?"

Clair smiled and reached into her purse, pulling out a wrapped piece of gum and holding it next to her pale face. "You mean this?" She asked almost tauntingly, waving it back and forth. Sam grabbed the gum away from Clair in less then two seconds and peeled off the wrapper and threw it into her mouth, chewing it happily. "I love this," Sam declared, smiling in satisfaction.

"I love it too," Clair said, a small smile on her lips. "But I chewed way too many of those and had tons of cavities, so my mom's making me throw it all away. Do you by any chance want a year supply of bacon-flavored bubblegum? Because I'll be more than happy to give it to you."

Sam stopped chewing her gum at the mention of year-supply and stared at Clair in shock, who returned it with a smirk. "Seriously?" Sam asked, her teeth still chewing the bacon-flavored gum. Clair nodded slowly, unzipping her purse and showing Sam the seemingly endless amount of bubblegum stacked inside it. "I don't kid around about gum," Clair said, zipping her purse. "I'll give you the gum, on one condition."

"Anything," Sam said as the succulent bacon flavor began to fade away. Clair's smirk grew slightly, and Freddie's instincts went into alarm mode, he knew Clair was bad news. "Uh, Sam, maybe we should go.." Freddie trailed off, his eyes looking for a near exist. Sam elbowed Freddie's ribs violently, dismissing him with a wave in the air.

"I'll give you the bacon, if you win this year's Washington State Dance Competition and I get a date with your friend," Clair declared, folding her arms. Freddie immediately opened his mouth to refuse, but Sam cut him off in a split second.

"Done," Sam agreed, extending her hand and shaking hands with Clair, causing Freddie to groan in exasperation. Clair noticed Freddie's groan and smirked, chuckling lightly under her breath as she walked down the hallway. She turned around and gave Sam and Freddie a look. "And you guys might want to stick around, me and Halt are rehearsing in the auditorium, and you should check us out. Oh and nice hair, Sam."

Freddie then tore his eyes away from Clair and examined Sam's straight locks with wide eyes. "You're hair is STRAIGHT?" He asked, completely shocked. Just as he said it, an old woman on a walking stick gave him an angry look, pushed her wrinkled finger onto her lips and growled.

"Shut up, you noisy hank," She said before sticking out her tongue and walking away.

In half an hour's time, Sam and Freddie sat in the auditorium, staring at Clair and Halt's performance with dropped jaws and wide eyes. They watched speechless as Clair spun around on her toes, her scrunchy flew off her hair causing her to look like a graceful ballerina, and she did a split in the air, landing in Halt's arms. They watched as Halt did a cartwheel, and as he spun around and threw Clair in the air, which she gracefully spun around, pointing her toes and landed in Halt's arms.

"We gotta practice way more than we intended, Fredwardo," Sam said blankly, her eyes lingering on the stage. "I want my bacon-flavored bubblegum and you don't want to go on a date with Clair, so get up and start practicing. Any questions?"

"Just one," Freddie said in a deadpan tone, his eyes fixed on the stage as well. "Why did you get us into this mess?"

* * *

**So I hope you guys like it. Thank you guys so much for reviewing.**

**So thank you GeorgieM, Kpfan72491, Mari13ssa, icecoffee18, gottaloveLOVE, Seddie Lover, SeddieShortBus, Helga4ever, and daa3fan. You guys are awesome and please review.**


	11. Unanswered Questions

**Important announcement: Starting next week, I'll be updating this story once a week now, probably on Saturdays because I have to put in more effort in my schoolwork, sorry if this disappoints anyone, but it's better than not updating at all, right?**

**Chapter 11: Unanswered Questions.**

* * *

The sound of Sam's strict instructions echoed throughout the room and Freddie's legs began to go numb. The fierceness of Sam's blue eyes scared him though, and whenever he followed her instructions exactly how she wanted him to, she'd roll her eyes and keep her poker face on, pretending to be increasingly unimpressed every time he practiced. It did get Freddie annoyed and also determined to impress her, he'd try and try again, but he'll always get the same response from Sam. The more she insulted him, the harder he tried

"Nope," Sam said nonchalantly, shaking her head. "You suck at this, even Spencer would've done better than that." Freddie sighed breathlessly, the pounding in his head growing more painful by the second. Sam got up and began to kick off her sneakers, replacing them with the required black satin flats (which she hated with a burning passion) and went throughout the moves, the high kicks and the twirls. She was surprisingly elegant throughout the dance, which was the last thing Freddie expected her to be. She kicked off her flats and drank more of her creamed soda and Freddie sighed in frustration.

"You're good," Freddie complimented, breathless and tired. Sam smirked, shrugging slightly as she continued to drink down her creamed soda, not bothering to respond to him compliment. They both sat there in silence for a few minutes before Sam got up and began practicing with Freddie again, ignoring her racing heartbeats which Freddie was completely oblivious to. The door opened unexpectedly and in came a man in his mid-twenties, holding a large bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Sam broke into a small smile, letting go of Freddie's numb hands.

"Jack, you're here!" Sam exclaimed, her smile dropping once those words left her lips and began to growl slightly. "You're forty-five minutes late, where the hell were you?" Jack simply shrugged as a response, looking over Sam's shoulder and raising an eyebrow at Freddie. Sam immediately noticed his surprise and pointed at Freddie with her index finger.

"That's Ernie Hills," Sam said, ignoring the questioning looks from Freddie as she made a mental note to tell him why she's been calling him that. "My dance partner, we're doing the Latin tango for the Washington State Dance Competition, you know the WSDC." Jack nodded, his confusion gone completely as he gave Freddie a warm smile.

"Nice to meet you Ernie, I hear from Candela that Ernie has slight amnesia, right?" Jack said sympathetically, a hand on his heart. Sam snickered slightly at Jack and Freddie's obliviousness and bit her lower lip in an attempt to prevent further laughter from escaping her lips before nodding gravely in confirmation. Freddie then sighed again, tired of not knowing why he was constantly called Ernie Hills. Jack then turned out to be one of the many dance coaches the Washington State Dance Competition directors sent to help improve the dancers on their skills and routine.

He constantly complimented Sam, calling her an expert without any need for further help, all she needed was more skilled moves that would amaze the judges to which Sam took happily. He worked on Freddie ten times harder, telling him his bone structure was wrong and he needed more confidence. They worked and worked and the fierce and stumble beat of the drums made Freddie regret helping Sam slightly. Sam noticed Freddie's exasperation and gave him an innocent smile and he couldn't deny the prettiness of it.

"Beautiful," Jack exclaimed, a smile on his lips as they finished the routine. Sam gasped for air breathlessly, her straight blond locks growing slightly tangled due to the sweat and Freddie just sat on a chair, breathing in and out. Jack walked over to him, giving him a pat on the back along with a "You did good," as Freddie gasped for air greedily.

As soon as Sam left the room to fill some forms (Freddie couldn't do so since he was trying to catch his breath and didn't know much about the WSDC) Jack grabbed some Peppy Cola and began a halfhearted conversation with Freddie, half-answering some of his questions as Freddie tried to learn as much as he could about dance.

"So Sam's been doing this for years?" Freddie asked, impressed by her dancing talent. Jack nodded in confirmation, a smug smile stealing his face as he continued to drink down the rest of his fizzy drink. Freddie's eyes became distant, little images of Sam dancing around his mind.

"She's a natural," Jack said suddenly, snapping Freddie out of his thoughts. He then nodded to acknowledge his sentence, his eyes still distant as he tried to get the image of Sam out of his mind. "Yeah..." Freddie said, dazed and unaware of the slight smile that played on his lips. Jack sighed heavily, throwing his empty soda can into the trashcan as he rubbed his temples. "I'm glad she's back, but she's probably gonna leave if she wins the WSDC and forget all about us, which sucks, she was my best dancer. Clair's absolutely determined to make sure she doesn't win because she wants to replace the humiliation she suffered when she lost to Sam in Chicago."

"Sam went to Chicago?" Freddie asked, temporarily forgetting Illinois was where Sam was born. Jack sighed, nodding his head slightly in confirmation as he drank another soda, murmuring something incomprehensible under his breath as he fidgeted with the pages of the magazines and Freddie sighed, knowing he was nursing a grudge against Sam.

"Um, why'd Sam quit dancing?" Freddie asked suddenly, biting his lower lip slightly in case the subject was touchy. Jack chuckled under his breath slightly, almost amused as he shook his head. "Sam didn't tell you, huh?" Freddie scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion, Jack made it sound like the answer should be obvious and that it's funny that Sam didn't tell him before asking him why she did it a second time. Jack opened his mouth to explain it, but Sam had already walked in the room, a small stack of papers in her arms.

"Here you go, Jackie." Sam said, throwing the stack of books onto Jack's laps before wiping her hands nonchalantly, a smirk on her lips. "Since you refused to sign the forms previously, too bad." Sam walked away from Jack despite his protests and yelling about Sam calling him his full name, to which Sam responded to with an amused smirk. Freddie breathed in and out, disappointed that he didn't get to find out why Sam quit dancing. The abrasive blonde pushed Freddie's shoulder back and gestured for him to leave, her bagback slung over her shoulder.

"Later Jack," Freddie waved, opening the door for Sam and Jack waved halfheartedly as Sam left the room. Freddie walked away and ran up to Sam, wondering how she could run so fast after the energy-sucking dance rehearsal they previously endured. Sam walked speedily and Freddie had trouble keeping up with her, finally he managed to walk up to her and breathed breathlessly.

"Hey," Freddie said once they left the building and began heading to Sam's car. "Why does everyone keep calling me Ernie Hills, and who is that guy anyway? You told me you'd tell me, well, tell me." Sam then rolled her eyes, fumbling with her car keys as she tried to open the door, pulling up her hoodie as the Seattle rain began to dawn on her. She then unlocked the car door and went inside, the cold wind blowing throw her locks.

"Well," Sam began as she put the car into reverse, and Freddie patiently waited for her to continue. "Ernie's my favorite childhood dance coach and he was supposed to enter the WSDC with me, but then he unfortunately broke his leg and as you know I became partner-less for the WSDC, but then when you decided to be a hero and join the competition with me," Sam rolled her eyes and Freddie turned a light shade of crimson. "I tried to cancel out Ernie's name and fill in yours, but then the WSDC people said I could only stick to one partner and changes are "forbidden"." Sam said, using air-quotes on the word "forbidden". "So since none of those bozos have seen Ernie before, I figured you could pose as him." Sam shrugged and Freddie nodded his head, finally enlightened by everything that was going on around him. "So, as long as you keep your mouth shut, we have a shot at winning this."

"Oh," Freddie said, nodding slightly as a smile stole his face. "Okay, I can deal with that, I just have one more question."

"Shoot," Sam said nonchalantly, her eyes locked on the road as she did a U-turn. Freddie then began fighting with himself whether or not he should ask her, it was amusing to Jack that he had no idea why she quit dancing, but he immediately became quiet when Sam walked in, so she obviously didn't want him to know. Also, he had no idea what her reaction would be, Sam is definitely unpredictable and spontaneous, so there's no telling what she'd do or say. So Freddie said the first thing that came to mind.

"Would you like some Fat Cakes?" He asked, a playful smile finding its way onto his lips. Sam then smiled excitedly like a five-year-old, her hands shaking slightly as she pulled over and parked the car. Freddie already knew her answer and walked out, relieved slightly.

"Do I ever," Sam said, pulling him by his arm and leading him to the Grocery Store.

* * *

Carly walked out of detention and down the empty halls of Ridgeway. She had previously been arguing with Mr. Jones, determined to enter detention with nothing to lose. She was surprised at how free everyone was in detention, since she'd only been to detention once and the nasty Mr. Howard was in charge. She was pleasantly surprised at how well things worked out with the iCarly fiftieth web show spectacular, and how Principle Franklin handled everything, which was why she didn't have such a bad impression on detention, it was fun before and fun now. Where else could you throw play hangman and listen to music freely and have watergun fights freely?

As Carly walked down the hallway, she heard faint footsteps behind her. She turned around nervously, scared of being stalked. It was hard to identify the girl in front of her in the dim lighting, but she was able to distinguish curly red hair and aqua blue manicured nails. Carly then fully identified the girl in front of her and breathed in relief, a smile on her face.

"Shannon, you scared me for a second!" Carly said, her hand on her heart as she gave Shannon a toothy grin. The pretty redhead walked out of the shadows and returned Carly's friendly smile with a slight grin, slinging her schoolbag over her shoulder as she proceeded to walk down the hallway with her. "So, how'd Mr. Jones handle your case?" She asked nonchalantly, flipping her silky red hair over her shoulder. Carly shrugged, thinking nothing of the question. "He gave me one detention and said it wouldn't be on my permanent record, so yeah, it was okay."

"Sweet, Kathy in History got three detentions for listening to music in class," Shannon shook her head, rolling her eyes for effect as she opened the school's front doors with her pale hands. "Mr. Jones can be so annoying." She whined, sighing heavily as she took out her car keys. She gave Carly a look and shrugged, "Want a ride?"

"You have a car?" Carly asked, looking around the school's parking lot for Shannon's possible car. Shannon walked over to a very expensive-looking silver Audi and Carly stared at it, bewildered at the sight as Shannon unlocked the car doors and casually went in, beeping the horns playfully. She nonchalantly rolled down the windows and poked her head out, a giggle escaping her lips. "Wanna come in?"

"Really?" Carly asked, stunned and excited. Shannon nodded in confirmation and smiled warmly, causing the perky brunette to run over to Shannon's car and sit in the front seat, tingling slightly with excitement as she buckled up her seatbelt and rolled the window down. "I'm probably the last girl in Ridgeway to not own a car," Carly joked, smiling lightheartedly. "But it's okay, how'd you afford it?"

"My mom married some filthy rich businessman in L.A. and he bought me this car in hopes of winning me over," Shannon rolled her eyes, putting the car in reverse as the wind began to blow in her face and she smiled. "So not gonna happen, but I can get tons of cool free stuff as I lead him along," Shannon stated excitedly, another girlish giggle escaping her glossed lips. "Soon enough, I'll have everything I ever wanted. It's like a game I play, except I'm never gonna lose."

Carly nodded, dazed slightly as the wind blew in her hair. She pulled out her sunglasses and slipped them on, imagining being a beautiful scarlet like the ones she would see in the action movies she used to watch with her father. Shannon began driving down the road as she adjusted her mirror and her seatbelt. "Oh, and I hope you don't mind, but I have to pick up my cousin. He's name is Oliver and he's our age, and pretty annoying and arrogant, so you might hate me after the car ride."

Carly chuckled lightly under her breath and waved her hand in the air, turning on the radio as her favorite Cuttlefish song began to fill her ears. She swayed to the beat, her feet tapping slightly as a smile stole her face. "Nah, it's all right. How bad can this guy be?" Shannon rolled her eyes, barely containing a laugh as she stopped by an apartment building. She cupped her mouth and called Oliver's name several times and honked the horn three times. "Shay, you have no idea what you're in for."

* * *

**I kind of wanted Carly to have a love interest, someone who has never been on the show. **

**And I'm a fan of love/hate relationships so Carly and Oliver will have one. I've been wondering what to call them, Coliver? Olly? I think Coliver's better. Thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing, and I just want to remind you guys that I'm gonna update once a week. **

**Also: Happy New Year! Welcome 2011, guys! I almost can't believe it's already a new year despite the fireworks. So guys, I'm curious, what are your New Year Resolutions? My New Year Resolution is to be nicer and more caring, since I've been told I'm kind of mean. What are yours? Leave it in your reviews! **

**Oh and speaking of reviews, I would love to thank xBeckyBooHerex, Helga4ever, The Laughter1234, and Kpfan7241! Thank you guys so much for your awesome reviews and I hope this chapter was to your liking. So please review and tell me what you think.**

**Happy New Year, guys! Have a blessed new year and I wish you all the best! :D**


	12. It's a Bumpy Ride

**Tha****nk you guys so much for your awesome reviews, and New Year Resolutions. Some of your resolutions are inspiring, I think I'm gonna try some of them. Well, it's official, I'm updating once a week now, thank you guys for being so patient. ****And oops, I forgot to put a disclaimer in the previous chapter. That won't happen again.**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? ****C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't.**

******Chapter 12: It a bumpy ride.**

* * *

Carly immediately regretted letting Shannon give her a ride to the Bushwell Plaza. Oliver's protests and complaints were too much for even her to handle, which is shocking since she could handle a very quarrelsome Sam and Freddie without losing her temper... most of the time. However, Oliver was completely unreasonable and just had to find displeasure out of everything, which just gave Carly an increasingly painful headache. Shannon, however, had taken all of it to stride, ignoring everything Oliver was saying as she drove on the road, humming popular Cuttlefish songs under her breath and maintaining a peaceful and relaxed expression, if only it was the same for Carly.

"Shannon, are you even listening to me?" Oliver asked, his tone offended and annoyed. Shannon smirked as a response and gave Carly an apologetic look before setting her eyes back onto the road. She mouthed "ignore him" to Carly when she gave her the brief look and Carly took her advice for a moment, her head resting on the back of the leather seat as she played with her silky black locks mindlessly.

"Why can't I sit in the front seat?" Oliver asked suddenly and Carly sighed, feeling uncomfortable. Shannon drove along the road, answering his question in the most nonchalant and bored tone she could possibly muster under the circumstances. "Because Carly's sitting in the front seat, and I'm giving her a ride home. Any further questions, dimwit?" Carly couldn't help but snicker under her breath at the mention of the recurring nickname Shannon gave Oliver.

"Okay, fine, but could this Carly chick turn around and let me see her face?" Oliver asked, rolling his eyes as he leaned his head against the comfy headrest. Shannon sighed heavily and gestured for Carly to do as Oliver asked. Carly groaned, reluctant to lock eyes with him, she was curious to actually see how he looked like since she spent most of her time staring at her shoes when Shannon was dragging Oliver to the car. She turned around and gave him a semi-friendly smile, showing off her pretty white teeth.

"iCarly's very own Carly Shay," Oliver stated, not looking or sounding the slightest bit impressed. Carly nodded in confirmation, her teeth automatically grinding at his lack of respect for Shannon and her. Oliver chuckled loudly, crossing his arms. "Good work, Shannon. You told me you knew the iCarly gang, but I didn't believe you. It's a shame I think nothing of that show, really it is."

"What?" Carly asked, astonished. Oliver just shrugged and Carly's hazel eyes left the road and molded into Oliver's dark blue ones, her eyebrows furrowing together. He raised an eyebrow cockily, a slight smug smile threatening to play on his lips and Carly crossed her arms. Shannon kept silent and tried to ignore her racing heartbeats as she continued to drive. She was fully aware that an unfortunate and heated argument was coming up soon and dreaded knowing it was going to be worse than she hoped.

* * *

Sam and Freddie were both shocked and disappointed to return to the Shay apartment and learn that Carly was still in detention. Sam had dragged herself up the wooden stairs and plopped onto the yellow beanbag and Freddie chose the red one as Sam plugged in her earphones and connected it to her Pearpod. She scrolled down the long list of songs and moved a particular song which played during a particular date (3rd of January, 2009, 8:35 p.m. to be exact) to a different folder, to lazy to delete it as the two teens proceeded to wait for their brunette best friend.

"Urgh, what's taking her so long?" Sam grunted when she grew out of patience, her foot tapping on the soft rug repeatedly and Freddie just sighed, waiting for her upcoming rant to come and go. He took out his schoolbag and handed her the extra Fat Cakes he bought at the supermarket with her and she happily munched on it, licking the pink frosting excitedly. A loud pling sound invaded their ears and Sam pulled out her cell phone, only to find a text from Carly.

**From: Carly.**

**To: Sam.**

_Sam. I need you and Freddie to pick me up._

Sam glanced at Freddie before directing her eyes back to her cell phone, beginning to type her reply.

**From: Sam.**

**To: Carly.**

_Why? I thought you said you'd be taking a bus back to the Bushwell Plaza? Where are you?_

Carly's response came quicker than Sam expected.

**From: Carly.**

**To: Sam.**

_Shannon offered to give me a ride home, but had to pick up her dumbass cousin Oliver (yes, I realize I just cussed) and took the wrong path accidentally, and somehow... we ended up in some place called Garina Lane._

Sam's heartbeat quickened, and her hands began to shake. A million questions immediately swam around her mind, what if they ran into Jared? What if they saw her paintings? They would obviously knew she did them, as she stupidly signed her full name in every painting. She needed to get them out of there, as soon as possible. So quickly, she typed in a response, her hands shaking uncontrollably.

**From: Sam.**

**To: Carly.**

_Okay, I'm coming. Don't move, at all. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes, at most twenty minutes. Stay where you are._

**From: Carly.**

**To: Sam.**

_Thanks, Sam. :)_

"Who was that?" Freddie asked, curiosity coloring his tone as Sam placed her cell phone into her shirt pocket. She grabbed her schoolbag and got up from her beanbag, her mind slightly in a whirl as she proceeded to open the door, despite Freddie's ongoing questions. She sighed heavily and answered him quickly, already opening the door and walking out. She heard the sounds of his sneakers running against the wooden floor and grunted, knowing that he would definitely tag along at the mention of Carly being in possible danger.

"I'm coming too," Freddie insisted, folding his arms. Sam rolled her eyes, continuing walking towards the parking lot, her speed increasing along with her persistence. She shook her head in disagreement, pulling out her car keys and hunting down for her car. "Nope, you're not. I've got this one covered, just go home and play with your Galaxy Wars dolls and leave the rest to me, okay?"

Freddie shook his head, completely against the thought of letting Sam rescue Carly on her own. "No, Sam, what if you get lost? I'm just as stubborn as you, if I say I'm coming, I'm coming." Sam cringed slightly, knowing it'll be almost impossible to change Freddie's mind at the moment. She sighed, not giving in. "Well the same thing goes for me, I'm doing this alone."

"No, you're not," Freddie insisted, taking a step towards her. Sam glanced at her watch, and then took a look at the sun, which was going to set soon before grunting, slapping her hand onto her forehead. "C'mon, Fredlumps, it's gonna be dark soon. It's easier to get lost in dimmer lighting," Sam stated, rolling her eyes.

"All the more I should come along," Freddie said, arching an eyebrow slightly. Sam groaned, hating herself for giving in so easily. She nodded and unlocked the car doors, another grunt escaping her lips automatically before getting into the car. Freddie smiled in victory, getting into the car as well. Sam then began to drive towards Garina Lane, her eyes set onto the road, she then stopped, grunting one more time and slamming her head on the steering wheel repeatedly.

"Why did you stop?" Freddie asked, and Sam breathed in heavily, desperately trying to calm her anger and frustration. "Traffic jam, a long traffic jam." Sam stated, her head still on the steering wheel as she continued to breath in and out heavily. "We're gonna be stuck here for hours, can this day get any worse?"

"Yep," Freddie gulped, pointing to the clouds, which were growing increasingly grey and puffy. "A thunderstorm is approaching, and let me warn you, it will not be a pleasant one."

* * *

Carly miserably leaned her head against the bark of the oak tree, eyeballing a bickering Shannon and Oliver, her head starting to pound. She hugged her legs closely to her chest, and felt her professionally curled eyelashes grow increasingly heavy. She rubbed her tired and pale arms, her head starting to pound. She heard her phone ring slightly and pulled it out, only to see a text message from Sam. She put her cell phone back into her jean pocket, leaning against the oak tree once again, groaning in exasperation.

_I'm stuck here for two hours at least. Wonderful, just wonderful_, the frustrated brunette thought before falling into a tired and fitful sleep. It was going to be a long, long night.

* * *

The traffic lights mocked Sam mercilessly and found a\musement out of her pain and anger, at least that's what the blonde thought. The heavy Seattle rain dawned on them, making it harder for Sam to focus on the road. She was, however, thankful that she had something to shelter herself, unlike Carly. For all she knows, Carly could be miserably sitting on wet, squishy grass and getting soaked from head to toe by the icy rain.

Freddie, however, was more optimistic. He knew Carly was too, and was intelligent as well, therefore she would most likely find shelter and direct Shannon and Oliver to it. He's heard about Garina Lane, and knew there were many places for shelter. He also heard people were fairly friendly over there, and would be more than willing to share and help those who are in need. Freddie had shared his theory with Sam a few minutes earlier, but she had just rolled her eyes, chuckle under her breath and smiled like she knew a secret.

What he didn't know was that Sam had spent a fair amount of time in Garina Lane, it was a small town. Tiny, in fact, and the people there tend to be selfish, and would usually give only if they got something in return. Carly probably had some money, but only twenty dollars at least. Not to mention she was stuck with Shannon and her cousin, and Sam knew that wasn't a good thing. Shannon was a priss, it was common knowledge in Ridgeway. She would say "shoes are for fashion, not function!" every time someone would ask her to walk a long distance. She also had a tendency to throw a fit whenever things don't go away, and could sometimes behave like a spoiled brat.

Sam didn't know much about Oliver, but Carly seemed to have a bad impression on him, which led her to cuss, which was rare when it came to Carly. She had previously told Sam that cussing is "unladylike" and she tried her best to not cuss, being the good girl she was. So this Oliver guy was most likely a whine and a brat, which explains Carly's dislike of him. So Sam was able to know that Carly wasn't enjoying her time in Garina Lane, and knew that she was probably miserable and stuck under the rain.

Sam sighed, waiting for the seemingly endless line of cars in front of her to demolish so that she could pick Shannon, Oliver and Carly up. She glanced at the time and sighed, tapping her fingers on her steering wheel and tapping her foot. When Sam shared her theory with Freddie, he panicked and realized that his theory was nothing compared to Sam's. He leaned against his headrest and groaned, finally looking away from the bright side and facing reality, knowing that it was going to be a long wait to get to Garina Lane.

* * *

**Well, I hope that was to your liking. For some reason, this chapter felt a little bit like a filler one to me. But it's okay, I hope you find the Carly-Oliver relationship a little interesting, and possibly decent. Their fights will get more intense, and he's attending Ridgeway. Oh and they'll have a lot of sweet moments, and a lot of their sweet moments will fit the song Smile by Uncle Kracker, so I hope you'll like them. **

**I'm not sure if the Seddie in this chapter was satisfactory, but I hope it was. If it isn't, maybe you'll like the next chapter better, which will be posted next weekend. Oh and I would love to thank my wonderful reviewers, which are xBeckyBooHerex, SeddieShortBus, Geekquality, Mari13ssa, Anonymous, Kpfan72491, daa3fan, KWilson, Helga4ever, iBrown-eyed-blondie, and gottaLoveLOVE. Thank you all so much, and you all also have a wonderful taste in usernames. xD**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and please review, since, you know, I LOVE my reviewers. So that's it, and you know that button below me, yep that one, click it, and you'll be incredibly lucky the next few days. Either that or you'll make a certain author very happy. :)**


	13. Thunder

**Thanks all of you! And please review.**

**Thank you guys so much. Seriously, the reviews were awesome. So are you ready for the next chapter? Doesn't matter, you're getting it anyway. Also, thank you for being patient, the terribly long wait (exaggeration, it's only been like seven days) is over. Isn't that wonderful? Oh and the song here is Thunder by Boys Like Girls, which I DO NOT own, but love a lot.**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? ****C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't. Oh and as I previously mentioned, I don't own Boys Like Girls OR their song Thunder, just wanted to clear that up.**

******Chapter 13: Thunder.**

* * *

Carly Shay was not one to believe in magic. The closest thing she's ever came to believing in magic was when she believed in Princess Consuela and her magic curse a few years back. But now, she's constantly hoping for a miracle, waiting for Sam to magically appear with Freddie and rescue her, Shannon and Oliver from the horrendous, icy-cold Garina Lane. She hugged her legs closer to her chest and tightened her thin hoodie, her eyes already starting to water as she desperately tried to hide under the leaves of the oak tree she was leaning against and use them as shelter to prevent the cold rain from coming into contact with her hair and skin.

She adjusted her sitting position, thankful that Shannon forgot to unload her picnic mat from her trunk which she bought when she went picnicking with her friends a few months ago. The warm and waterproof material prevented unwanted wet raindrops from coming into contact with her jeans, and she was somewhat warm. She was also happy that she had a delicious bag of the gummy worms and had enough to go around. She had it a lot easier than she expected, so maybe being stuck in a town she never heard of before and soaking under the icy cold rain and using the thin leaves of the oak tree above her for shelter while waiting for her best friends who quarreled continuously over unimportant, tiny subjects wasn't _that _bad (sarcasm).

Carly inwardly groaned, shivering as cold raindrops dropped from the green leaves above her and landed on her pale arms. Her teeth then started to chatter uncontrollably, which led the brunette to groan again before hitting her head gently against the rough bark of the tree, closing her eyes again as she grew colder by the second.

"Are you cold?" Oliver asked, sounding genuinely concerned about Carly's welfare. The brunette turned to look at him, a certain fire burning in her brown eyes as she gritted her teeth, her eyebrows knitting together as she spoke, venom in her tone. "No," she spat angrily, crossing her cold arms and shivering at the cold contact. "I'm just shivering and rubbing my hands together continuously just for the heck of it."

Oliver breathed in, deciding to ignore Carly's unnecessary sarcasm. "If you want, you can have my jacket," Oliver offered generously, a small smile playing on his lips. Carly arched an eyebrow, not ready to trust him and uncrossing her pale arms, a bitter chuckle escaping her lips as she leaned against the cold tree bark again. "Like I'll believe you, Ol. How old do you think I am?" She sneered, rolling her eyes.

"Seventeen, as am I. And of all potential nicknames, you choose Ol?" Oliver asked, chuckling under his breath, almost amused. Carly bit the insides of her mouth, unsure of the emotions swelling up inside her. Anger? Amusement? It was sort of a combination of both. Smiling lightheartedly, she decided to play along. "I, for one, think Ol suits your personality."

Oliver almost chuckled, biting his lips to avoid smiling. "And why is that?"

"Unexplainable." Carly replied nonchalantly, shrugging as she smiled lightly.

"Look, Carly, take my jacket. It'll keep you warm, and besides, I've got a spare one in my bag." Oliver said, causing Carly to reach out and snatch the leather jacket from Oliver's tanned hands, already trying it on. She huffed once she finished adjusting the jacket and tightening the strings, crossing her arms and pouting. "You could've told me you had a spare one so you wouldn't freeze. Stuff like that should be mentioned, thanks to you, I froze unnecessarily."

Oliver rolled his eyes, already taking out a blue hoodie from his bag. "You're such a drama queen, it's just a jacket."

"Jackets can save peoples lives, you know." Carly stated, all of the lightheartedness teasing had already came and gone, replaced by anger. Oliver growled, putting on his jacket. Shannon sighed tiredly from the other side of the tree, fully aware that the significant others had completely forgotten about her presence. She groaned quietly, tired of hearing their fighting and covered her ears, desperately trying to block out Carly and Oliver's voices. She did, however, managed to hear words such as "hypothermia" and "ingrate" as well as "ungrateful" and "spoiled", plus "brat" was involved.

Sleep soon dawned on Shannon, and she readjusted her sleeping position, resting her head on her cold hands. She laid her sleepy head on the hard ground, thankful that the mat was waterproof and bit her lower lip. She might have heard a "sorry" from someone, but it was said so softly, she might have imagined it.

* * *

Freddie sighed, listening to the sound of Sam's fountain blue fingernails tapping on her steering wheel impatiently. The blonde was growing increasingly impatient and it took tremendous effort to avoid rolling the windows down and screaming at the cars in front of her. She hit her head against the warm headrest behind her, her blond locks tangling. Freddie leaned against the window, watching raindrops drop from the dark clouds and landing on the road.

Sam stared at the wiper wiping off the raindrops on her windshield, not believing she was reduced to focusing on such pointless things. She groaned, closing her eyes in exasperation as she tiredly checked the time, using all of her strength to not rip the heads off the passengers in front of her. She blinked tiredly, the sun had already set and it was already nighttime. She rubbed her hands together, sighing again as she honked her horn impatiently.

"Sam," Freddie said weakly, his head resting on his window. "Quit honking, you're giving me a headache."

Sam scoffed, removing her hands from the steering wheel and crossing her arms as she arched an eyebrow. "If you don't like it, leave. Simple as that, in fact, I would gladly hand you my umbrella and you can run back to the Bushwell Plaza. It won't take much effort; we've been stuck here for like an hour, and it's already dark. Carly must hate me right now, and I bet she's suffering with Whiny Shannon and Bratty What's-His-Face." Sam said nonchalantly, breathing in and out to calm her nerves.

Freddie sensed some underlying emotion underneath her tone which Sam attempted to sound nonchalant. He bit his lower lip, understanding her worry and guilt. Truth be told, Sam indirectly caused Carly's current state.

Carly had to get a ride home from Shannon because she had to stay back for detention, resulting in being possibly late for iCarly rehearsals, which she would hate to miss. So of course she would try her best to reach home as quickly as possible, and obliged to Shannon's offer. Oliver was being unreasonable, and Carly can only handle complaints for so long, so of course she lashed out at him, which caused a distracted Shannon to take a wrong turn. But Carly did bring it upon herself; she did choose to take the blame for Sam, no one forced her to do so. But she didn't know this would be the outcome, so maybe it wasn't entirely her fault, she was just trying to help Sam out.

Maybe, the whole thing was too confusing for even Freddie to figure out. He sighed, pulling a loose thread on his jeans as he sighed heavily. Sam stopped honking and buried her face in her hands, murmuring something incomprehensible under her breath. She bit her lower lip until her stomach began to grumble and she breathed in heavily.

"You're hungry..." Freddie trailed off and Sam nodded in agreement, keeping silent. Freddie fished in his bagpack, pulling out a Fat Cake and handing it to Sam. She gladly snatched it out of his hands, devouring the tasty treat happily before coming to a realization. She turned to Freddie, arching an eyebrow. "Where's your snack?"

Freddie shook his head, smiling a bit. "I had an early dinner so I'm not hungry, I have tons more Fat Cakes in my bag, if you feel the need for another one, take one." He lied, handing Sam his bagpack. Sam smiled in satisfaction, already pulling out five Fat Cakes out of the bag, her straight blonde hair falling and framing her face.

Freddie sighed, rubbing his empty stomach and leaning against the frame of the window. He's not exactly sure _why _he gave up approximately ten Fat Cakes and lied that he already ate, but he just decided that she needed the food most. Freddie stole a glance at Sam, looking at her straight curls. She was, undeniably, a pretty girl, and one of his favorite things about Sam was her hair. Her curls, actually, in particular. They were unruly and somewhat messy, but it did look good on her. She had curls since they've met, and Freddie's hardly seen her wearing her hair in straight locks.

He's not liking the new look, mainly because it makes her look different, and not entirely Sam. But all in all, her personality was still the same, and so was everything else. So it shouldn't matter how she wore her hair, as long as she likes it, and as long as she's still Sam, then it's fine. Sam's eyes left her Fat Cakes slowly, staring at Freddie quizzically. "Why are you staring at me?"

Freddie then discovered the small smile on his lips and looked away, his face turning into a light shade of crimson as he looked at his sneakers, clearly embarrassed. "Um, you have Fat Cake on your cheek."

Sam touched her cheek and pulled away to find a sticky substance of pink mush lingering on her hands. She grabbed a few tissue papers from the box and wiped off all of the remaining Fat Cakes on her face and hands off, causing Freddie some relief. Sam then rubbed her hands together, "Thanks, Nub." Then, without warning, she threw the tissue papers at Freddie, along with the box.

"Hey!" Freddie yelled, causing Sam to laugh. Freddie groaned, throwing the tissue box back to the laughing blonde. Sam's laughter immediately died down, and threw the box back to him. Freddie then threw the box back, soon it became an ongoing cycle of how-threw-what. Sam even threw a Fat Cake, which was highly surprising since she wouldn't throw food around carelessly. The bickering duo finally stopped their round of throwing objects at each other and Freddie sighed heavily.

"I'm bored," Sam announced, boredom coloring her nonchalant tone. Freddie nodded in agreement, acknowledging her comment as he played with his fingers. He then, without thinking, added. "In times like these, I usually play the Alphabetical Rhythmic Blues."

Sam's eyebrows knitted together, turning to face Freddie, her eyes wide in bewilderment and amusement as a smirk threatened to play on her lips. She didn't hesitate to laugh and clutched her stomach, staring at Freddie. "What the hell is _that_?" She asked, actually genuinely curious.

"A game my AV Club buddies played when we were locked out," Freddie replied, causing Sam to raise an eyebrow, laughing lightheartedly again as she leaned her head against the window. "I bet it's the worst game ever."

"No, it's really fun. Seriously, just try it, one person says a word starting with the letter 'A' and the other person follows with a word 'B' and so on. The first one who goes off track looses, it sounds lame but is actually insanely addicting." Freddie said, and Sam sighed, agreeing. She was in desperate need of fun anyways, and would take whatever she would get.

"Amazing." Freddie began, a smile on his lips.

"Bored." Sam replied, crossing her arms.

"Correction."

"Deadly."

"Effective."

"Fu-"

"Don't even think about it, Sam." Freddie threatened, causing Sam to roll her eyes. She breathed in, grunting again. "This is the worst game ever."

Freddie crossed his arms, shaking his head in disapproval. "You've only been playing it for not even a minute, Sam. Just give it a chance," he said, his brown eyes looking at hers. She rolled her eyes again, reluctantly nodding due to her urgent need for something even somewhat fun to do. She was not one to sit around and be bored, she would find some fun, no matter what.

"Start with 'F' again, and do not include a certain four letter word that starts with 'F' because I'll have to stop this game, and you'll be bored out of your mind until we reach Garina Lane." Freddie ordered, causing Sam to groan inwardly.

"Frustrated." She said vacantly, the word coming out strangled. The word cycle immediately began, and it soon became a competitive one, regardless of how unlikely it may seem.

* * *

"_Today is a winding road that's taking me to places that I didn't want to go_," Oliver sang, his surprisingly warm and melodic voice got Carly's attention, and she turned to look at him, noticing the familiarness of the song.

He felt the brunette's eyes on him, and suddenly felt pressured, after all, she was the Carly Shay. One of the prettiest girl he's ever seen, and for some reason he felt a little insecure singing in front of her but he continued nevertheless. "_Today in the blink of an eye I'm holding on to something and I do not know why I tried_." Carly listened intently, unaware of the tiny smile that stole her face.

"_I tried to read between the lines, I tried to look in your eyes. I want a simple explanation for what I'm feeling inside I gotta find a way out. Maybe there's a way out_," Oliver sang, a little shakily. He intended to sing the chorus, but was stopped by an angelic voice.

"_Your voice was the soundtrack of my summer. Do you know you're unlike any other? You'll always be my thunder_," Carly sang, her eyes closing automatically. Oliver admired her peaceful expression for a moment, a smile playing on his lips as he continued the next line, an image of her in his mind as he continued to sing.

"_And I said your eyes are the brightest of all the colors, I don't wanna ever love another. You'll always be my thunder_." Oliver sang, a sudden idiotic grin playing on his chapped lips. Carly swayed to the music playing inside her head and Oliver took a deep breath, singing the next line. "_So bring on the rain and bring on the thunder_."

He stopped for a moment and turned to Carly, anxious for her reaction. To his elation, she was smiling, as if she was impressed. Carly tucked a strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear and nonchalantly placed her hands in Oliver's jacket pocket, leaning against the oak tree and breathing in slowly. "You've got a good voice," She complimented, a hint of a smile on his lips.

Oliver nodded, smiling as well. "So do you, Shay. You should totally sign up for something, I'm not that into singing. I'm more of a guitarist," He stated, shrugging.

Carly felt her struggles and the pressure and tension building on her shoulders evaporate quickly into thin air and she felt more at ease, a long sigh escaping her lips. The heavy rain finally stopped pouring on them, and the night sky was soon cleared, revealing a few sparkling stars. Carly's hair glimmered in the moonlight, and a certain spark went off in her eyes. Oliver was more laid-back and nonchalant, which made her feel more at ease.

"Listen, I'm kind of sorry about my... attitude?" Oliver tried to apologize, making the apology sound more like a question. Carly couldn't help but giggle at his attempt to apologize, rolling her eyes and fighting a smile, because that would mean defeat. She shrugged, trying to maintain a glare. She turned to meet Oliver's dark blue eyes, but then feeling her expression softening. She hated giving up, but he obviously had the upper hand.

Carly breathed in the now cool, night air the previous rain had left for them, a small smile on her lips. "Fine, I forgive you, on the account that the rain stopped and I'm more relaxed." She said, flipping some of her dark locks out of her brown eyes. Oliver found himself smiling, and nudged Carly playfully, causing her to repeat the simple act that officially symbolized their truce.

"You're all right, Shay." Oliver said and Carly responded with an easy smile.

* * *

"Nub," Sam said, boredom coloring her tone as she pointed a finger to Freddie, making it clear that her statement was directed at him.

Freddie sighed, tired of the game he and Sam had been playing for the past hour. He breathed in, settling with a nonchalant "Ostrich" as he leaned against the window.

Sam sighed, driving along the finally clear road as the moonlight glimmered on her car and lead them towards the road that lead to Garina Lane. Freddie almost fell asleep as Sam drove, about to enter his peaceful and worry-free dreamland when Sam nudged him harshly with her arm, causing the brunette to wince in pain. Sam unbuckled her seatbelt and rubbed her eyes, a small smile on his lips and ignored Freddie's protests when she finished parking and turning off the wipers.

Freddie soon started yelling, growing frustrated that Sam wasn't giving him any answers.

"Quit your yelling, dork. We're here," Sam announced, rolling her eyes as she pointed at the window, showing the wet grass and the small town known as Garina Lane.

* * *

**That was a long chapter, but not the longest one I've ever done. What Just Happened currently holds that record, and I'm so sorry that I updated late, my best friends came along and we watched a lot of TV and played a self invented game... but I'm sure you don't wanna hear my excuses.**

**So anyway, what do you think of Carly and Oliver? Cute, decent, awesome, ship-worthy, what? Oh and Oliver has a sweet side, and could be really romantic, but he just chooses to pretend to be all tough, arrogant and full of himself to push people (in particular girls) away, you'll find out why later.**

**Thank you my amazing reviewers, I almost got to one hundred reviews. You all are wonderful, and they are: iBrown-eyed-blonde, KWilson, Mari13ssa, Kpfan72491, Geekquality, SeddieShortBus, Helga4ever and icecoffee18.**


	14. Don't Talk About It

**Important Announcement: I didn't update two weeks ago because I can only update every two weeks now. I'd appreciate it if you do not ask why, it's kind of personal.**

**SHAMELESS ADVERTISING: Want more of my Seddie fanfictions? You're in luck! I just wrote not one, but TWO Seddie oneshots which you guys hopefully will enjoy. The first one is called, **i'm just a drop in the ocean**. And yes, the 'I' was intentionally not capitalized and nothing is in caps because I really like how it looks, and it seems really pretty so just go along with it. Anyways, the second one is called **like a ticking time bomb in our hearts**. So you might wanna check them out after this chapter, thanks.**

**Disclaimer: Hey, you there! Do you seriously think I own iCarly? Do I look like Dan Schneider? C'mon, you've GOT to be smarter than that, so obviously, I don't.**

**Chapter 14: Don't Talk About It.**

* * *

Carly walked down the wooden staircase of the Shay apartment, combing her wet black locks as she walked, Sam and Freddie bickering not far behind. Carly sighed inwardly, drips of water running down her pale complexion and onto her pale hands, finding its way to the rug below her shoes. She shivered at the cold touch, remembering the way she shivered under the rain, growing colder and colder. She vowed to never go back to Garina Lane, as she feared that it would bring back horrible, horrendous memories of that terrible night when she had to stay with Shannon and Oliver, and how exhausted she was.

None of them had spoken about the terribly awkward car ride back home, but Carly remembered it perfectly, every single detail:

_"Not specifying what type of highway you take obviously doesn't allow me to inform you that you're on the wrong path, genius!" Oliver shouted, fire burning inside his dark eyes. Shannon was unusually quiet during the entire ride, nodding her head and flipping her red hair which had grown straight due to being in the cold wind for hours as she continued to stare at her perfectly manicured nails._

_Carly sighed, feeling sorry for Shannon as Sam continued to drive, completely ignoring the bickering cousins at the backseat of her car. Freddie sat in between Shannon and Oliver, feeling highly uncomfortable as Shannon leaned on Freddie a little, as if she was seeking some comfort from him. Oliver continued to scold Shannon, beyond livid as Shannon continued to nod her head and keep her eyes on her nails. Oliver took a deep breath, done with his rant as he leaned against the headrest of the seat._

_Shannon looked up, her eyes brimming and shining under the light as if they were filled with unshed tears. Oliver sneaked a peek at Shannon, still unforgiving despite the looks Carly constantly gave him. The atmosphere grew intense as every one was too quiet; not daring to speak fearing that it would cause another fight. Shannon apparently couldn't stand the silence, since it was too much torture for her, and she spoke up._

_"I'm sorry." Shannon blurted, her desperate tone getting everyone's attention. Oliver just stared at her with a blank expression, not saying anything. Her apology almost went unacknowledged until Carly spoke up, the silence killing her inside._

_Shannon wiped her eyes, and gulped, shaking her head. "You and Oliver were fighting and I couldn't concentrate and..." She trailed off, rubbing her nails. "And..." She turned to Carly, widening her eyes and biting her lower lip, looking so pathetic and desperate Carly wanted to just give her a hug and forgive her immediately, but Oliver was staring down her every move. "Carly, you understand right? I mean..." _

_"It's okay," Carly whispered so softly everyone had to strain to hear it. Oliver chuckled bitterly and Carly was sure there would be hell to pay in Shannon and Oliver's house. Sam and Freddie exchanged a glance while Sam was waiting for the citizens of Washington to reach the end of the road and they both turned back to the road, sighing simultaneously, so in sync that Carly wouldn't be surprised if they were thinking the same thing._

_Sam pulled over Oliver's mansion nonchalantly, gesturing for Oliver to leave. Oliver smiled gratefully, getting out of the car and tapping on Shannon's side of the window, silently asking her to leave. Shannon waved goodbye to everyone, clearly embarrassed and remorseful, and got out of the car with her head hung low. Oliver and Shannon walked into their mansion without a backward glance, both silently arguing as a housekeeper in a uniform holding a duster in her right hand welcomed them in, smiling brightly and cheerfully. Carly saw Shannon running into their house and their gates closed shut, leaving all of them out._

_The silence went on for the most of the ride back to the Bushwell Plaza, and Sam stole peeks at Carly who was looking at her slightly wet sneakers, sniffing. Sam sighed heavily, her eyes fixed on the road as the city lights shone on Sam's face, hurting her eyes for a brief moment before adjusting to the brightness. The heavy silence made Carly beyond uneasy and awkward, and since not one word in the English language was appropriate at the moment, all three of them kept their mouths shut during the entire ride, their minds on very different matters._

_"You okay?" Sam asked from the front seat, pressing her lips together. Carly nodded, looking out the window and staring at the city lights. "Yeah, I'm fine..." She trailed off, tapping her nails against the armrest. She knew for a fact she wasn't fine, she was the furthest thing from that._

She dreaded remembering about how strong the wind was, and how scared and helpless she felt under the weather. Oliver's jacket warmed her up and he gave her some snacks which Shannon had secretly stored for herself, which was why Oliver was so enraged. Carly was extremely thankful for the encouragement Oliver gave her, even though they spent half of their times reluctantly singing under their breath to Cuttlefish songs which they were fond of.

Carly brushed through her tangled locks, smoothing out her layers. She started to like Oliver and they had developed a bit of a friendship last night, but the fact that Oliver seemed a little fazed when he was in the car scared her a little bit. She wondered what was going through his mind, and she didn't like that he was taking it out on Shannon. Even though Shannon was mostly to blame, she wouldn't have lost her focus if Carly and Oliver hadn't argued. But then again, Oliver was the one who started it, right? Either way, Carly couldn't help but feel guilty about their whole incident, and she had nightmares about them last night. She honestly hoped that it would not happen again, for it traumatized her, she had enough near-death experiences as she did, and she certainly didn't need anymore.

Carly had began secretly fearing hammers ever since one almost cut her head off when she was thirteen, window washer platforms when she was fifteen, trucks when she sixteen and now, at the age of seventeen, Garina Lane's unpredictable weather. She hated being afraid because she hated the feeling of having her heart jump rapidly and that she had to constantly hold her breath.

Sam, however, had more things to fear. One of was possibly liking her worst enemy, which now lives just across the street since her mother will be in Florida instead of a few days, but she had recently changed it to a few weeks. Sam had to struggle with wondering why she kept having weird variety of emotions swelling up inside her whenever she was next to Freddie. Obsessing over his thoughts and how badly she could make him tick, how confusing and how big of a mystery she comes off with him, and what he's really thinking.

She'd occasionally bite her lower lip to avoid screaming in exasperation and/or ripping all of her blond hair out. She hated that she became addicted to him, she hated that she had this compulsive need to be around him, bask in his presence and hated, absolutely loathed and dreaded with every inch of her being, that he could play mind games with her, like she can do with him. And she might have a tiny bit of an almost crush on him, so what? It's only physical; it'll go away, right? She hated thinking about these things, and hated obsessing over how much torture or anxiety she could bring him.

And there was poor Freddie, who was confused as hell. He would wonder ever so constantly why he felt a need to be near to Sam, and no longer to Carly. Freddie was pretty much intoxicated, and that confused the hell out of him. He would spend sleepless nights trying to figure Sam out, and he would fail miserably.

It was raining which didn't surprise the trio, since they live in Seattle and they've had their fair share of rain. The cool, misty breeze from the rain created a cool and relaxed atmosphere which allowed Sam the urge to have a Fat Cake and collapse onto the couch and watch reruns of Girly Cow while Carly desperately tries to get Sam to complete at least half of her homework, which is highly unlikely.

The living room was quiet as Spencer was out on a date with some girl he met at the grocery store, resulting in an unexpected and rare quietness in the Shay household. The only sounds came from Girly Cow's latest antics and Sam was munching on her Fat Cake, the creamy pink delight dancing on her taste buds happily. After a few bites of the treat, Sam found the Fat Cake to be unpleasantly sour and bitter. The sweetness and sugar rush had demolished along with her smile, and her face twisted in disgust as she threw the Fat Cake away.

Carly remained oblivious to Sam, her fingers rapidly texting Shannon, telling her that she wasn't at fault and trying her best to convince her that she was okay, even though she herself knew that was the complete opposite of the truth, she'd have nightmares for at least a week considering that was the situation with the taco truck incident. Carly then felt a vibration from her phone, only to realize that she had received another text message after a long silence.

**Meet me by the school's garden.**

* * *

Sam blinked, Jack already handing her the measuring tape as the girl in a black hoodie and grey sweatpants began measuring her at eight a.m. in the morning. Freddie stood the end of the corner, waiting for his measurement to be done as Sam bit her lower lip, thinking of the costumes they'll possibly give her. Another girl sat at the end of the room, sketching feverishly onto a piece of paper as she colored the insides of her design, which would determine what Sam would be wearing to the WSDC.

"Sam?" Jack asked, snapping Sam back into reality as the woman who was previously measuring her asked for her shoe size, scribbling onto the blue clipboard. Sam answered her quickly, and she nodded silently as she wrote it down. The woman looked behind her shoulder and asked, "Lilian, get a pair of satin black flats for her." Sam cringed at the thought of wearing flats, and gave the woman her measuring tape back.

"Sure, Evie," Lilian replied, hurrying to the costume room. Sam turned her eyes back to the woman who she now knew her name was Evie, and crossed her shaking arms.

"So, what am I wearing?" Sam asked once her voice was even. Evie held her index finger out, a hint of a smile on her lips as she tucked behind her light brown locks behind her ears. She told Sam to wait for Lilian to come back and she inwardly groaned her nerves bundling up as she sat down crossed legged on the grey carpet below her. Lilian hurried back into the room, pushing past Freddie and handing Evie a gown on a hanger.

Sam's guard went up as she stood, flinching at the sight. Evie examined the black halter style gown of splash metallic Lycra which flowed out to yards of organza scarf panels. Small, tiny gems of blue, pink and yellow enhanced the neckline, a stilt complimented the splashes of blue, pink and yellow metallic throughout it, and draped beading finished the entire dress. Evie bit the insides of her lips and Lilian smiled nervously, anxiously waiting for Evie's approval.

"Nice work," Evie praised, and Lilian broke into a smile. Evie smoothed out the edges of the dress and handed it over to Sam carefully, telling her to handle it with care as she went over to work on Freddie. Sam pressed her lips together and closed her eyes shut, praying that it was just a dream and that she would wake up in her warm bed breathing in relief. But unfortunately, she was one hundred percent sober and awake, and all of this was happening. First straight hair and now a tango dress which is absolutely not to her liking.

"Go," Evie ordered suddenly as she turned around, batting her hand in the air as she pointed to the dressing room. Sam gulped, nodding her head and walking over to the room as if she were in a trance, cursing under her breath as she struggled to put the dress on. She buttoned up the back and desperately tried to zip it and pull everything together, grunting in exasperation when the zipper got stuck. She heard Carly walking into the room, the sound of her signature heels stepping on the floor assured her that it was her brunette best friend, but Sam couldn't help but wonder what took her so long, considering the fact that she was supposed to be there half an our ago.

Sam finally got the zipper up and breathed in, examining the dress through the mirror. It was okay, easy to move in and flow-y. The flats were comfortable and she was okay with it, and the fabric was surprisingly soft and smooth. She noticed the stilt only revealed her lower leg, hiding her thigh and assuring comfort. She smiled in satisfaction, the dress was perfectly flexible and bendable for movement and dancing.

She took a deep breath and walked outside, seeing Carly texting frantically into her phone. Carly then looked up and a smug smile found its way to her glossed lips, assuring Sam that she couldn't wait to tease her about the fact that Sam swore she'd never wear a dress again. She was about to walk up to her when a smiling Evie blocked her way, walking around her and throwing remarks, some negative, some positive and some neutral. Sam nodded throughout everything and Evie turned around, pulling Freddie towards Sam. She was pretty sure she stopped breathing for a very brief second before regaining her posture and managing a small, teasing smirk, waiting for a lighthearted tease to come to her.

"Nice, you clean up really well," Lilian said with a wink as she pulled Freddie and grinned at him suggestively, watching him smile nervously. Carly tried to hold back her laughter from the back, biting her glossed lower lip as she attempted to remain oblivious to her surroundings. Freddie shot her a glare and Sam quivered, trying to contain her laughter. Freddie crossed his arms and adjusted his hat before fiddling with his tie.

"Do I really have to wear a hat?" Freddie asked, almost whining. Evie exchanged a look with Lilian and shrugged in response, causing Freddie to take the black hat off, revealing his now tangled and tousled hair. He attempted to smooth it out as Lilian discussed the time plan with Jack.

"You kids comfortable in your costumes?" Jack asked, walking out on his conversation with Lilian. Sam nodded along with Freddie, causing Jack to smile.

"Great, well, we better get back to rehearsals." Jack said, gesturing for Evie and Lilian to leave. They both rolled their eyes, stating that they weren't going anywhere as there was still work to be done and costume changes for the second act. Sam turned to Jack, her eyebrows raised in suspicion as Jack turns to her, an innocent smile on his lips.

"Didn't I tell you?" He asked, mumbling something under his breath. "There are two acts; every group has two of them."

"But, wait - I thought there's only one. And if they're two, how come we didn't get another type of dance from, "The Hat"?" Freddie asked, making air quotes around "The Hat". Sam nodded in agreement and Jack only sighed, pushing Sam's shoulder as he shook his head. "Sammy, have you forgotten? Dancers choose one act and their instructors choose another. We've less than a month to get prepared, come on."

"So what's our second act's theme?" Freddie asked as Evie and Lilian set down their things and began grabbing their measuring tapes again. Jack put his bag down, and said in a nonchalant tone, "Oh, our second act is ballet. You know, dim lighting, soft music, elegant, graceful moves, that kind of stuff." Sam cringed again, silently cursing under her breath as she fiddled with her nails followed by her hair. Freddie bit his lower lip slightly and Jack clapped his hands.

"Hurry up, Lilian and Evie; we've only got a month to prepare!" He yelled causing the two girls to shoot him annoyed glares. Sam turned to Carly and sat next to her, burying her head in her hands as she shook her head at the sight of Evie taking out a white silk dress which was slinky and had sequin dot chiffon flounces.

* * *

Carly sat down, watching Sam and Freddie in their now second act costumes. They've already gone through half of the Latin tango, which was astonishing to see how good of a dancer Sam was. Carly had watched speechless as she saw Sam kicking up her right leg and Freddie lifting her up, even though the worry in Sam's eyes were entirely visible, there was also some underlying tension going on.

Nothing had been the same since last night, ever since Sam and Freddie picked Carly up from Garina Lane, something had changed between them. Sam seemed more tense and uneasy around Freddie, and the same thing went for him. Something must've happened between them last night, something that they were hiding from her. Carly felt the urge to confront Sam about this because of their 'No Secrets' policy they made back when they were fifteen, but knowing Sam, she'd just deny it and try to change the subject.

Carly sighed, knowing that she had secrets of her own that she didn't tell Sam and Freddie about, so she wasn't one to talk either. When Shannon called Carly to meet her at the school's garden, she was sure Shannon called her over to apologize for getting them lost in Garina Lane last night. But Carly was obviously wrong; Shannon had called her over to threaten her instead. Shannon said that Oliver began acting a little differently yesterday, and she said that Carly was getting a little too close to him, which was something she didn't like.

_Oliver's my cousin and I'm sure as hell you're going to hurt him, just like all of the other girls he dated. You're no different; I'm positive you'll string him along and crush him to a million pieces. And I, being his one and only cousin, can't let that happen_. Shannon had told Carly earlier, she had also threatened to ruin Carly's reputation if she caused Oliver any kind of pain, because he's been looking dazed whenever she'd mention Carly's name, and automatically assumed that Carly was just another girl who loved to lead guys on and break their hearts. Carly was shocked upon hearing this, and baffled too, but she certainly wasn't afraid knowing she had Sam to back her up.

But all in all, being threatened by Shannon was scary. She had a lot of power in Ridgeway, and was in Diana Lewis's clique, meaning she's one of the popular girls who guys drool over constantly. She could build you up, but destroy your reputation in minutes, seconds even. Carly shook her head, refusing to go into all of it, knowing that she didn't even have any romantic feelings for Oliver... she was sure of it. (She wasn't really sure of it.) Carly then sucked in her breath and continued to examine Sam and Freddie's rehearsal.

Sam looked dazzling, she was wearing a lovely silk white gown a few inches below her knees and her hair was down, in straight locks. Hardly any makeup was applied, since it was only a dress rehearsal, but some Smokey White eye shadow was applied to her eyes and some mascara was applied as well. Freddie was wearing a nice, cut out buttoned shirt along with white jeans and white sneakers. She spun into his arms and spun out, her eyes opening and closing as if she was fighting something, and she breathed in and out. Freddie seemed to be struggling as well, and she let go of his hand, ran across the stage slowly and did a full split in the air effortlessly.

She spun back down, landing in Freddie's arms graciously and parted quickly as the soft, melodic music stopped playing. A few people in the audience clapped and Sam and Freddie hurried back backstage, breathing in. Carly complimented both of them, giving Sam a quick hug, before looking at the rest of the competition. Sam raced back to her dressing room and Freddie followed her hurriedly, trying to catch her attention.

"What?" Sam hissed between clenched teeth, her hand on the silver doorknob. Freddie pressed his lips together, still shaking.

"I'm... I'm sorry for last night. We-" Freddie tried, but Sam immediately interrupted his soon-to-be apology.

"Shut up," She ordered, her voice quavering a little. "Shut up, shut up; shut up. Don't talk about it, okay?" Her voice was barely above a whisper now; it was almost like she was pleading with him. Her eyes opened a little, silently asking him now to not speak of what happened last night. "Just... Let's just not talk about it, and pretend it never happened." Sam pleaded, her teeth chattering a little bit.

"Pretend?" Freddie asked, growing increasingly angry. "You know that's not going to solve anything; the truth always comes out. Remember what happened the last time we tried to pretend something didn't happen? And what happened in the end? I'll tell you what happened; the truth came out, and Carly's trust in us faded a little. I don't know about you but I don't want that to happen again."

"Shut the hell up." Sam ordered sharply, her sense of vulnerability replaced by anger. "I don't want to deal with all of this right now. Listen, I know you hate secrets and all that crap, but what happened last night was stupid, and it didn't mean a single thing, okay? There, I've said it and we can move on. You don't have to pretend it never happened, just zip your lips and it'll make things a billion times easier for us. Just... Just don't mention it, you don't have to pretend, you just have to shut up."

Freddie blinked, and before he could say another word, Sam slammed the door in his face and leaned against the door, breathing heavily as she pricked her fountain blue nails. Freddie just stood there, staring at the door for who knows how long before walking back to the side of the stage.

* * *

**Longest chapter so far... wow. ****Thank you guys for being so patient, seriously, you're amazing. =3 Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing.**

**SHAMELESS ADVERTISING AGAIN: Don't forget to read "**I'm just a drop in the ocean**" and "**like a ticking time bomb in our hearts**" if you haven't. They're mine, and Seddie. **

**My wonderful reviewers: Kpfan72491, Geekquality, veeheart914, gigglebug321, Wolflover, SeddieShortBus, iBrown_eyed_blonde,****Mari13ssa, icecoffee18. I LOVE YOU GUYS. And thank you for reading and reviewing, you are all magnificent and I love you all. Also, remember, I'll update every two weeks. Like I said, I'd appreciate if you don't ask me why, it's kind of personal.**


	15. Flashbacks and Blind Dates

**a/n: You guys hate me, I know. Come on, throw some bricks at me and chase me down the street with pitchforks and hammers, I'm totally up for it. I'm sorry for not updating this period of time, sorry.**

**disclaimer: *sigh* I don't - you know what? I've told you guys a million times that I don't own iCarly. If you still believe that I do own iCarly, I have nothing to say but please visit a doctor, because you might be suffering from extreme stupidity. :)**

**Chapter 15: Flashbacks and Blind Dates.**

* * *

Sam sighed, sprawled on her bed, facing the ceiling, as the memories came rushing towards her. It was impossible to forget, everything that happened that night, and the fact that she had to see him everyday was making it a whole lot worse. Her heart was racing, her head was pounding, she kept staring at the colors of gold and yellow behind her windowpane and bit her lips ferociously.

She couldn't help the memories from flooding towards her.

**Flashback**.

_Sam brushed a string of her blonde locks out of her eyes, her skin glowing under the moonlight as they lay on the surprisingly dry grass. Carly had rushed off to the coffee shop down the street to get a hot drink, and Shannon and Oliver decided to come along with her. Freddie was the only one besides her who decided to stay behind, watching the stars glimmer in the night sky as Sam laid down, sprawled on the ground._

_Sam's mind immediately went back to a few years ago, when she had first came to Garina Lane. She was about fifteen, and being the curious girl she was, she noticed an abandoned neighborhood and decided to take a look. It was quiet, empty, but most importantly - it was boring and broken. There was lovely houses in sight, but all of the residents had moved and left hurriedly, and Sam had no idea why. The walls were surprisingly clean and fresh, and they had a different scent every day. Sam wondered who cleaned them every morning, but she never got the chance to find out, because she had to (reluctantly) go to school._

_One day, she was opening one of the many rusty gates along the corner, where she saw a bunch of fresh crayons lying undisturbed on a nightstand. She rose an eyebrow in disbelief, wondering just who had stopped by to buy a fresh nightstand and put a new pair of crayons on top of it, but Sam decided to pick it up and examine them. She grabbed a lime green crayon and began sketching on the walls._

_Soon, she picked up an aqua-blue colored crayon and drew a majestic day sky, flooded with puffy white clouds. Sam pressed her lips together, unsatisfied with the image before her eyes. Her entire life, Sam had never been a fan of happy endings and puffy clouds, and it seemed out of place. Sighing, Sam picked up a dark gray colored crayon and drew over the white, making the bright clouds into thunderclouds._

_She picked up another shady gray colored crayon and drew little raindrops from the thunderclouds, and then she took different colored crayons and drew city lights that shone under the rain. They were blurry and accurate, and Sam drew some speeding cars. Soon, she drew different images, lights and stars, scattered pieces of broken glass on the street, raindrops, umbrellas, and thunderclouds. The entire drawing screamed Seattle, and Sam then wiped her chalk-stained hands proudly as she admired her work._

_She packed up her things and left soon, as iCarly rehearsals were about to begin. She returned the following morning, pushing the rusty gates open without much effort as she stepped into the room. Sam noticed that every wall had been scrubbed and cleaned with scented soap except the one she drew on the previous night. She arched an eyebrow, and then she looked at the very bottom of the wall which had words scribbled on it._

**Very fine work, indeed. A true masterpiece. **

_Sam raised an eyebrow, breathing in. She immediately looked around, hoping to see someone, but no one was in sight. She sighed, and decided to draw on another wall. The same thing happened, every wall was cleaned and scrubbed except hers. There was yet another note of praise at the very bottom, and Sam was determined to know who was this mysterious resident. She spent the night at Garina Lane, huddling behind the tattered blankets she brought from home and nibbling on the leftover pieces of ham._

_She saw a man, in his mid-twenties, holding a bag of cleaning supplies in his hands. The man chuckled at Sam's drawings and stared at it in awe and admiration for a moment, and Sam emerged from her hiding spot and then asked the man about the abandoned town. He sat her down, told her all sorts of stories, how the town used to be packed with people and how everyone knew everyone, and how everyone was friends with everyone._

_But when she asked about why this town was deserted, the man fell silent. Instead, he introduced himself, Jeremiah Parker, Jared for short. He had brief conversations with Sam, and then she grew fond of the odd man, but she was still interested to know the exact reason for the current nature of the town. Now, as she laid beside Freddie, her eyes glimmering under the moonlight, she still had no idea._

_Freddie had found her paintings, as he was exploring the town, and found her name on every single drawing. She came clean and didn't bother to make up a lie, since it would be pointless, and ignored all of his praises._

_"Sam, I'm serious," Freddie said, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her slightly. "You could get an art scholarship. You have amazing talent." Sam simply rolled her eyes. She fingered the brightly colored grass below her fingertips, and smiled slightly as the ticklish fabric brushed against her skin. She noticed a haphazard pile of daises huddled together, and she grabbed them immediately, thrusting them at Freddie._

_Freddie blinked, incredulous and shaking, before he furrowed his eyebrows together and shrieked slightly. Sam fell into hysterics, clutching her stomach as the hiccuping laughs came, her eyes watering as she continued laughing. Freddie frowned, and she merely smiled at him innocently - and if he didn't know any better, he'd say she looked like an angel._

_But she's not, evidently. He scooted closer to her, sneakily grabbing a pile of grass in his hands, but she noticed at the corner of her eye, and threw him over. He threw the banquet at her, however, and she laughed even harder. Her laugh was like a chime to him, ringing in his ears, and her eyes like a pool of extended colors of blue, shining under the moonlight almost magically._

_She stopped laughing once she realized how close their faces were, and then she noticed that it would be incredibly __cliché for them to kiss, but being the __cliché _ romantic Freddie was, he automatically began leaning in. She could feel his hot breath closer to her face, but a wave of panic stroke through her, and she immediately pulled away, not allowing their lips to connect, and pulling Freddie out of his haze. He blinked - first confused before a shadow of understanding swept his face, and then embarrassment sank in.

_"Hey, guys!" Carly called from behind them, brushing her messy hair aside as she approached them. Oliver was drinking his coffee drink nonchalantly as he approached them, and Carly was grabbing Sam and Freddie by the shoulders and leading them to the car park. "Come on, we have to leave this hellhole." Oliver nodded and mumbled something in agreement, to which Carly responded to with a grateful smile._

_As they were running to the car, Sam tripped on a rock, but landed in Freddie's arms. She turned her head, inches away from Freddie's face, and breathed out. She scooted away from him as if he had the plague, and continued to walk to the car, more cautiously this time. Freddie breathed out, embarrassed and hating himself, as Sam warily walked to the car, unusually silent._

_Shannon ran towards the car, not speaking as she squeezed all of the water out of her curly red locks. Carly eyeballed her and Oliver groaned in resentment, earning a hateful look from Carly. Sam drove silently, her hands trembling and her fingers shaking against the steering wheel. Freddie would be invading her minds, thoughts, and dreams for the rest of the week - that's for sure._

**End of flashback.**

Sam stopped breathing for a moment, her hands clammy, her eyes weary, and her legs trembling.

* * *

Shannon sighed heavily, lifting her glass of coffee as she continued to listen to David Chesterfield, the guy who her best friend Karoline set her up on a blind date with, yap about his ex-girlfriend and how horrible she apparently was, and groaned loudly as he made unfunny jokes and as she pouted instead of laughing along like he expected her to.

"So," David said, shaking his head. "Olivia twirls her hair and rolls her eyes, and says _you are such a nerd_," his mock, attempt to sound like a girl made him sound like a cranky grandmother instead, which made Shannon laugh and smile a little. David's face lit up upon hearing her chime-like laugh and continued his story, "And then I say, _whatever, you're not Barbie if that's what you're thinking_."

David deepened his voice when he spoke on his part, attempting to sound tough and fearless, but instead sounded like a bad version of the Terminator. Shannon rolled her eyes playfully, taking a sip of her coffee as she gestured for him to continue. "Then my girlfriend Taylor comes out of nowhere, and she's wearing this ridiculous pair of combat boots which makes her look like freaking Barbie or something, and pushes me over to a corner."

"Oh my," Shannon said sarcastically, pretending to sound interested. David rolled his eyes, continuing his story. "So then, she tells me sickeningly that she doesn't think it will work out between us and that she just wants to be friends. Before I can say anything, Olivia comes up to us and digs her fingernails into my arm and smiles evilly. Taylor then tells me to go home, and just like that - we're over."

"Ugh, the horror," Shannon rolled her eyes, grunting.

"Shannon, I'm not kidding. I don't get why Taylor would allow her monster of a cousin to run her life like that. Taylor and I dated for two years," David stopped to hold two fingers up and waved them in front of Shannon's green eyes. "Two years and she breaks up with me just because of a random family member. It's ridiculous."

"Family means a lot to some people," Shannon said casually, resting her head on her hand. "Like me, I have a cousin, and even though we're at loggerheads everyday, he's the brother I never had, and he's staying at my house now. His mother died last year, and he's still getting over it. She was a very sweet person, and very close to my cousin, and his dad is on a business trip overseas and won't be back for at least a full year."

"Well, that's nice, but it's not the same situation," David said, shaking his head. "I have cousins that mean a lot to me too; like Karoline, your lovely best friend and the one who set us up, I love her very deeply, but in a platonic way. We also have Jeremiah Parker, he goes by Jared, and is an odd soul. He cheers me up when I'm down. And there's Ian Chesterfield which I-"

"Wait," Shannon interrupted, almost spitting her drink out as she coughed. "Ian Chesterfield? As in, founder and owner of the WSDC, Ian Chesterfield?" David smiled in pride and nodded in confirmation, causing Shannon to shake excitedly as a wide smile stole her face. "Would you introduce me? I'm a big fan. I watch the WSDC every year with my mom and Karoline."

"Sure, on one condition." David said, and Shannon rolled her eyes. She didn't mind; she'd do practically anything to meet Ian - she had been constantly watching the Washington State Dance Competition for five years straight without missing an episode. She and Karoline would constantly make bets and argue over who would win, and her mother would provide them with snacks and drinks.

To find the man who made all of this bonding with her best friend and mother possible would be like a dream come true. David smiled widely, and then, without warning, he leaned closer and whispered, "You have to pretend to be my girlfriend when you meet Ian. He doesn't like it when I bring random friends over, but a girlfriend is always an exception. Taylor and Karoline met him several times, and even had tea with him."

"I'll do it," Shannon exclaimed, smiling widely. David returned her smile, "Great. I'll pick you up at three o'clock tomorrow so that you and Ian can meet. Oh, but don't bring a friend, okay? Like I said, only people who are close to me will win the affection of Cousin Ian, and a mere blind date's friend will not put you on his good side."

"I got it."

Shannon, was, however, not expecting a surprise. She was expecting maybe some quality time with Ian Chesterfield, and then she would squeal with Karoline and brag about it at school the following day. She was not expecting to find a certain very quarrelsome, bickering duo that were on each other's throats everyday. And certainly wasn't expecting to see a certain brunette who was occupying the thoughts of her beloved cousin.

* * *

Sam sat down in the middle of Shelby's training room, her hair has been curled again and she finally felt like herself after one week. The music that was playing from the stereos above her were catchy and upbeat, and made her tap her foot. She didn't know what exactly brought her here, she just found herself walking to Shelby's training room, and knocking on the door.

_The sun is hot but I'm holding on._

Sam repeatedly fanned herself over and over, her bangs sticking onto her forehead as the hot sun shone down mercilessly upon them. Shelby had found this inspiration, and continued punching the punching bag that was dangling in front of her. Sam watched her with a bored expression, and she grabbed the remote for the air-conditioning.

Shelby had refused to turn it on, since she claimed that the heat made her more energetic and gave her a stronger will to train harder. Sam watched her brunette friend helplessly as she continued to punch the blue bag angrily, her eyes like two licks of flame and the rays of sunlight shining through the windowpane behind Shelby made her look like a raging fire.

Once Shelby had finished her training, she reached into the cooler and pulled out two cans of Peppy Cola. Sam turned on the air-conditioning and turned down the music, and the two friends toasted their drinks and cooled off. Shelby had asked her why Sam had curled her hair again, and Sam merely commented that Shelby's stupid plan didn't work. As Shelby tried to convince her otherwise, the laptop in front of them was on the iCarly page, and there were different messages from fans.

As the two girls argued, a loud sound came from Shelby's laptop. Someone sent them another message, but it wasn't an average one - it was written in caps and had different signs all over it. Sam had never really seen anything quite like it, and it seemed to be a long message, and she had to go over to the WSDC headquarters for rehearsals.

"I'll read it and keep you posted, you go to rehearsals!" Shelby offered, and helped Sam pack her things up. As soon as Sam left, Shelby opened the message, and her eyes scrolled up and down as she read it.

It was a challenge, a challenge for Sam and Freddie, one that Shelby knew would be impossible for the two to keep.

* * *

**a/n**: so yeah, I'm back. I'm sorry for disappearing for so long, it's just that I didn't know where to take it from here, and this story seems to be dragging out at some parts. But I know what I'm going to do now, don't worry, and there's going to be different things happening to Seddie. I didn't put any Oliver/Carly action in this chapter because this story is mainly about Sam and Freddie, and Carly and Oliver is sort of a momentary abbreviation.

I would like to thank ALL of my wonderful reviewers;

Geekquality, KWilson, gigglebug321 , iBrown-eyed-blonde,veeheart914, Kpfan72491 , Quinno96 , Mari13ssa , icecoffee18 , Hannah Cha . Especially Hannah Cha; your reviews are amusing, I love reading them. This chapter is dedicated to you, Hannah. :D


	16. Witness

**a/n: Thanks for all the lovely reviews. They get me through a rainy day and give me encouragement to continue this story. I kinda have a question for you; are you sure this story isn't getting boring? Be honest. It's just kind of bugging me a little, so feel free to state your opinion. As long as it's constructive, I'll accept it. Thanks.**

**Chapter 16: Witness**

* * *

Sam stood in the back of the stage, twisting her hair as Carly chewed down on her grape gum. Emma Wilson and Addison Abrams continued to chat mindlessly not too far away from them, and Freddie began to find pleasure in having small talk with Irina Bradshaw and Anya Luella. Irina smiled at something Freddie said (probably an unfunny joke), and then they both burst into a fit of hiccupping laughter.

Sam felt a hand on her shoulder as she watched Irina and Freddie and instinctively flinched, turning around to see Wendy smile down at her. She raised an eyebrow, questioning Wendy's presence but welcoming the distraction. Wendy placed her fuzzy blue Girly Cow bag beside her and rubbed her arms on her leg warmers. She then grew tired and crossed her arms and tightened her thin hoodie.

"Hey," she said finally, a smile on her lips. Sam waved in response; she liked Wendy, despite her girly-ways, the chick's pretty a-okay. She crossed her arms uncomfortably as Sam asked her why she came here. Wendy smiled again, and Sam raised an eyebrow; she normally isn't this chipper. "My monster of a cousin, Clair Underwood, forced me to come and support her. I take it that you two aren't on good terms."

Sam chuckled. "Brat," she said, and Wendy nodded in agreement. Clair pointed at her cousin warningly as she and Halt were called up to the stage for rehearsals. A glowing ray of studio orange light hit both of them perfectly. The crowd went silent as they continued to dance gracefully, and Sam leaned back in the plush seat. Freddie continued to speak and Irina blushed.

"Ernie," she said. "You're so funny. You know, you should totally become a comedian one day. Or maybe you should do stand-up. I can be the fabulous and gorgeous girl on your arm." Freddie raised an eyebrow, and Irina laughed. "Dude, I'm kidding." She smacked his arm playfully. "You're so adorably serious. Loosen up."

"Sure, Irina," he said, and Irina giggled. Freddie shot Sam a quizzical look and Sam smiled slightly, glad at the fact that he doesn't return Irina's obvious feelings. Sam leaned back and smiled, letting him know that she was enjoying his torture. Irina, oblivious, twirled her dark hair, leaning closer. "You know..." she trailed off, her eyes diverting to her fingernails."I like movies."

"Cool." Freddie said, shifting uncomfortably. Irina pouted. "Just saying, there's a movie in town, and I was wondering if you'd like to go." She smiled, and then shrugged as she leaned back in her seat. "This is weird. I'm not usually one to ask guys out; they always ask me. Do you want to see Give It Up? I heard it's—"

"Irina," he cut her off. "I... uh, no offense or anything, it's just, I'm not really available this weekend."

Irina raised an eyebrow, clearly not used to being rejected. A smile brightened her pretty face, and then she nodded. "Next weekend?" she offered. "Give It Up is in cinemas everyday until next Sunday. So maybe we can catch a movie on Saturday." Freddie shifted again, and Irina caught his message. She laughed, but it came out flat.

"Ah. You're the kind of guy doesn't dare to come out and tell me you don't want to go out." She laughed again. "It's okay," she said, and Sam almost felt bad for her, almost. Irina cleared her throat, drumming her perfectly manicured fingers on her thigh. "You're not interested, I get it." Freddie opened his mouth, but she cut him off.

"You know, you really do look like that tech producer on _iCarly_." Irina said, changing the subject. Freddie became visibly paler, and Sam had to bite her tongue. It was a well-known and long running fact that Freddie was known for his terrible lying skills, and if he blew this, Sam was sure to kick him in places that should never be kicked. And possibly tie him to the flag pole.

"I do?" Freddie asked, his voice higher pitched, causing Sam to gulp.

"Yeah, but he's way cuter," Irina added, "And his dorky ways amuse me more than you ever could."

Irina leaned in close and fiercely pushed Freddie backwards, causing him to fall onto the ground. Irina smirked and walked on to another seat before hi-fiving Hilary Lyons. Carly helped Freddie up, and Sam laughed at his pathetic sight. Clair left the stage and smiled at her two friends and hi-fived Irina with a proud smirk.

A female judge shook her head, her expression somewhere between amusement and frustration. "Okay, enough with the ruckus. I believe we are all capable of behaving like professionals." She sighed and holds up her clipboard, and Sam continued laughing. "Samantha Puckett and Ernie Hills, you're next. Remember; do not give away your entire dance, just a little sneak peak."

Sam reluctantly stopped her laughing fit and stood up as a rush of panic filled her veins. She turns around to face Freddie, and then, she groaned. "Come on, Dork-face," she said, going to the stage and having Freddie follow closely behind her.

* * *

Shannon walked into the hotel David led her into.

Her bundling nerves began to get the best of her as she set foot inside the beautiful and awe-striking room. She examined the gorgeous chandelier that hung above her, she look at the fresh nightstand with a bunch of white daisies on the table, still dripping with dew, she fingered the freshly cleaned chairs in the lobby, she stared at the elevator with bronze buttons that glowed whenever her fingers brushed against them, and then she stumbled over to the staircase which had to be the grandest thing in the entire lobby. It was an eye-catching shade of white which had strings and roses on the railings, tied together with a grand red carpet on the stairs.

Shannon gulped and turned to David, who only smiled in response. She choked back her words and her hands began to shake as she became intimidated by the beauty of the lobby. "And," David said suddenly, placing his hand chastely on Shannon's shoulder. "You should see the auditorium. It's amazing; the lights are killer and insane, the carpeting is amazing, and it's designed by Andrew Cranston himself."

A glimmer of pride twinkled in his hazel eyes, and Shannon found herself smiling back as if she knew who Andrew Cranston was. David flashed Shannon a dazzling smile and led her to the elevator, brushing his hands with the buttons and gesturing for her to go in. Shannon questioned where the sudden chivalry came from, even though she wasn't complaining.

The elevator music calmed her nerves slightly, but she was still a nervous wreck. David noticed her uneasiness and chuckled, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right, Shannon, Cousin Ian doesn't bite." Shannon nodded, shaking him off her and maintaining some of the previous don't-touch-me attitude she displayed before. The opening of the elevator door made it impossible for her to continue her facade and she stepped forward, her hands shaking again as David led her into the auditorium.

She breathed in deeply, opening the door to the auditorium.

She expected to see Ian Chesterfield, but instead saw Sam Puckett and Freddie Benson, dancing on stage. Her mouth was practically lying on the floor as she stared at them, and her enlarged pupils were probably wide as saucers. David arched an eyebrow at her expression, and shook her, but she could not find the words to describe how shocking this scene was for her.

Freddie twirled Sam, and she danced with elegance, the lights hitting both of them perfectly. There was a hint of a smile on Sam's lips as Freddie dipped her, and then, to her shock, the lights changed from the graceful and innocent color of white to the ravishing and striking color of red. Sam now had a fiery expression, and Freddie spun her in and out of his arms quickly. Sam went back into Freddie's arms and he brought her around the stage, holding her in an almost loving way, and she lifted herself up, lifting her legs up one by one in a graceful manner.

She found herself still staring at them with saucer-wide eyes.

Sam put an arm around Freddie's shoulder as he brought her up and spun her and brought her down, spinning her down. One of her legs is out, not awkwardly or gracelessly, but she danced with elegance. He brought her up, her fingers loosely intertwined with his, as he held her waist. They went up simultaneously, and then he spun her in the air.

Sam did a graceful air-split and then swirled back down into, again, Freddie's arms. They stopped, and everyone exploded with applause. David clapped politely as well, and, not wanting to be rude, Shannon joined him, still trying to absorb the sight she was seeing.

"Beautiful job, Samantha and Ernie," a woman complimented, and Shannon arched an eyebrow. Sam's full name was Samantha, that everyone knew, and it was well-known that it is a death wish to call her by her full name. But who the chizz was Ernie? That was Freddie up there, not Ernie. Shannon walked forward to ask, but David held her back, pulling her to the back of the auditorium.

"Don't you want to meet Cousin Ian?" He asked, and Shannon suddenly remembered why she was there. She nodded, letting David lead her to the other door she just noticed was there, and before taking one last backward glance before leaving to meet Ian Chesterfield. Although, she still couldn't help but wonder what in the world was going on.

* * *

Freddie's arms were sore from the multiple rehearsals, and the back of his neck was still hurting because of Irina's sudden attack. Sam laughed her way through rehearsals, making up random jokes about it and some of them even caused Carly to laugh accidentally. It's been annoying, so far, but she wouldn't stop, and after a while, Freddie let her throw her insults at him without protest.

"I'll go call a cab," Carly said after rehearsals let them out. He was glad Carly decided that she would accompany them for their dance rehearsals, because it eased the tension between him and Sam after the unfortunate night a few days ago.

He didn't know what caused his sudden urge to kiss her, but it just happened, and his attraction to her grew everyday. It began terrifying him. He felt electric shocks whenever his hand brushed with hers, he kept having dreams about her, she was on his mind all the time, he would spent sleepless nights trying to figure her out and he could barely find fault with her anymore.

Carly was out of his system; his attraction to her grew less and less. Her hair lost its amazing flare, her eyes weren't as bright and magical as before, her smile didn't have an amazing effect on him anymore, and he lost interest in his pursuit to date her. She was just Carly, not _Carly_. Sam was becoming _Sam,_and that wouldn't go away, no matter how hard he tried. It frustrated him to no end.

"So..." Sam began, and it was obvious she won't bring up the topic of their almost kiss. Freddie shifted uncomfortably as she trailed off. "Why is it that the crazy chicks are usually the only ones who want to go out with you? I mean, yeah, it's understandable, but seriously. Magical Milka, Crazy Clair, and now Insane Irina, and you somehow always end up injured. But, you know, with your crazy circus freak genes, I'm sure it isn't your fault they find some weird attraction to you."

"Thanks Sam," Freddie said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. She shot him a thousand watt smile in response. "Welcome, Fudge Face," she paused, "Wait. I already used Fudge Face, didn't I?" He rolled his eyes. "I don't know. I mean, you're nicknames are unlimited, so it's hard to remember some." Sam nodded, and she said, "Frederlina."

"Sam, did you just call me Frederlina?" He asks incredulously, scrunching his eyebrows together in confusion. Sam pressed her lips together, and then, she burst out laughing. Freddie stared at her, before her laughter became contagious and made him burst into an uncontrollable case of hiccupping laughter. They both rolled on the floor, their eyes filled with tears as they clutched our stomachs, and he could barely breathe as he continued to laugh.

"Are you serious?" Freddie asked, breathless and leaning over. Sam smiled at him innocently as Carly began to come over, clutching her cell phone in her hands. "So I already called the cab and—" she paused to examine the position both Sam and Freddie were in. She breathed in, a hint of a smile on her lips. "Okay, who pushed who over?" Carly asked, and Sam sighed and rolls her eyes.

"Freddie just couldn't handle his new nickname," Sam said, and then, she got up and grabbed one of the vitamin water bottles that Carly was holding in her hands. "I'll take that," Sam said, pushing past Carly, and causing the brunette to turn to her other best friend and stare at him quizzically.

"What nickname?" Carly asked, and Freddie shook his head, a slight smile plastered on his lips as a dazed look stole his face. Sam turned around and shot him a smile, her curls glowing under the light. His voice came out dreamy, which caused Carly to scrunch her eyebrows together in confusion at his two words.

"Don't ask."

* * *

**A few things: I know this may seem like a filler chapter, but it's actually kind of important. I needed Shannon to figure out that Sam and Freddie are in the WSDC. Also, you know Karoline, Shannon's best friend? She's going to make an appearance. Shelby, for the record, is not up for Seddie. She doesn't really like it all that much because she doesn't have a very good view on Freddie, and she doesn't think Sam actually considers him as a serious crush or anything.**

**Oh, and Oliver is not forgotten. Like I said, he and Carly's relationship will have proper development, but like I said, it's just an abbreviation. They will have their moments, though, I promise. Because you guys have apparently grown somewhat fond of their relationship. I wouldn't want Carly to end up all alone; so I'm giving her a fun, splashy, love-hate relationship.**

**And lastly, the Garina Lane storyline will come up, along with Jared's past and why he never wants to talk about how the town will become abandoned. I'm not abandoning him, if that's what you're thinking, because I actually like him. The story of Garina Lane being deserted is actually pretty sad, but it has to be addressed since I already brought it up in the last chapter.**

**Also, a big shout out to my wonderful reviewers: Geekquality, KWilson, Kpfan72491, SeddierFTW, bella3590, Helga4ever, icecoffee18, Hannah Cha. Thank you all. This is an extremely long a/n but whatever. :D**


	17. Threatened

**Summary: In which Sam needs a partner for a dance competition and Freddie seems to be the best possible candidate. After a few lessons, witty banters, petty arguments, friendship development and unexpected bonding turns into an unforgettable experience.**

**Chapter 17: Threatened.**

* * *

Shannon flashed Mr. Chesterfield one last dazzling smile as he waved goodbye, David's arms still wrapped around her shoulders in a somewhat loving way. Shannon leaned into him for believability that they were actually dating, and Ian nodded in approval. As David closed the door, Shannon crossed her fingers and started doing a happy dance, immensely and unbelievably happy that she managed to win over Mr. Chesterfield.

David chuckled and let go of Shannon's hand as he led her into the auditorium. There, she suddenly remembers what she witnessed when she came here and her smile faltered as her eyebrows furrowed together. She immediately turned around, searching for Sam and Freddie, but no one was there except for a girl, who appeared to be around her age, with noticeably long black hair that fell into messy curls and was up to her waist.

Shannon told David that she left her purse in the auditorium and asked him to go back first. Once he was gone, Shannon walked up to the girl who was lying under the fluorescent flashing lights. She tapped her shoulder politely, only to have her turn around and face her with a bored expression plastered on her face. Shannon was now able to see her true appearance under the light, and she noticed that she has little wrinkles on her nose.

The girl was rather pretty, her hair and eyes were dark, her eyes had a mysterious gleam inside, and her left eyebrow was pierced. Shannon began to introduce her, but was cut off by the girl's sharp tone as she turned her eyes away from her perfectly manicured nails, not a cuticle out of place, and groaned.

"What do you want?" the girl asked rudely, and Shannon arched an eyebrow at her less than welcoming tone.

_So that's how she wants to play it_, Shannon thought. She took the girl's unnecessary rudeness into stride, crossing her arms and displaying a similar act of hostility.

"First of all, who is Ernie Hills? That guy dancing with Samantha Puckett is Freddie Benson." Shannon said, causing the girl's eyes to enlarge. She placed her hands on her hips as she shook her curled hair. Shannon heard her murmuring to herself as she paced along the polished stairs, tapping her foot.

"That's old news," the girl began slowly, crossing her arms. "To me and my friends it's old news. We know, but the other performers at the WSDC don't. They don't watch iCarly, so they have no idea who Freddie and Sam are. It's strange, yes, but I did not expect you to have knowledge of this. I thought the iCarly gang was keeping this a secret." She turned around and paced across the dance floor. Shannon wordlessly followed her.

The girl suddenly remembered Shannon's existence, and eyeballed her suspiciously. "Who exactly are you?" She asked, and this time, not wasn't not a trace of annoyance or hostility in her tone; she sounded completely harmless and even sweet. Shannon cleared her throat before answering.

"I'm Shannon Mitchell. I go to Ridgeway with Sam, Freddie and Carly." Shannon said, and the girl smiled down at her, causing an uncomfortable shiver to go down Shannon's spine and a sense of coldness to run down her knees. This girl was seriously scary, and her smiles always seemed to have a trace of evil.

"I'm Irina Bradshaw," she said, extending her hand, and Shannon's eyebrows furrowed uncertainly.

Irina paused, "Are you friends with Samantha and Freddie?" Shannon nodded, and Irina slowly broke into a grin as she grabbed Shannon's arm. "C'mon." She soon began dragging her to a place, and Shannon froze in panic, remembering David.

"I can't." Shannon said, and Irina paused, turning around. Shannon explained the situation, and Irina reluctantly let her go back. She asked Shannon to come back the following day at three o'clock, and for some reason, she said yes. She dashed outside, only to find David waiting for her patiently.

* * *

Shelby skimmed through the request on the website one more time, showing it to Sam, who only shook her head in disbelief. Shelby sighed one more time, and then, grabbed another can of soda out of the cooler beside her. Sam grabbed the laptop, immediately typing a response to the sender, but Shelby instinctively slammed her hand on the keyboard, not allowing her to type further.

"Don't you want to show that to Carly and Freddie and consult them before typing a reply?" Shelby asked, causing Sam to growl. Shelby was fully aware of Sam's hatred of stopping to inform others when she could fully make the decision herself, but even she knew the importance of informing Carly of something like this lest they get into yet another fight over the website.

"I can call her for you if you want," Shelby offered, causing Sam to arch an eyebrow in disbelief. Shelby wasn't usually so helpful, and her selfish nature made it understandable to why Sam wouldn't believe that Shelby would help her, but she was (for once) sincere about this. The e-mail was abnormal and strange, and both Carly and even Freddie had to be aware of it. Sam reluctantly handed her hand phone over, and Shelby began to dial Carly's number.

"Hello?" Carly asked from the other line, the sound of Spencer's girlish screams invading the background. Shelby laughed quietly to her before responding. "Carls? It's Shelby; I think you need to check the iCarly website. Some wacko sent you guys a message that you should read."

"No internet," Carly explained ruefully, and Shelby sighed in exasperation. Grabbing the laptop from Sam's grasp and ignoring her questions, she carefully slid down and began to read the message to her out loud.

"_Dear iCarly_. _I'm S. I heard Sam and Freddie have been doing a little dancing. And yes, Freddie, not Ernie Hills, is dancing with Sam. I know for a fact that if word of that gets out, our little friends Freddie and Sam will have to quit the competition. Don't worry; I'll keep my mouth shut, on one condition._" Shelby read carefully, pausing to hear their reactions as she scrolled to see more of the mysterious message.

"What's the psycho's condition?" Carly asked, her voice sounding tight and scared. Shelby scrolled down, reading the rest of the message. She bit her lower lip to avoid laughing, accidentally letting out a chuckle but cleverly disguising it as a cough.

"Sam has to go one whole day to school, wearing a banana costume," Shelby started, looking ruefully at Sam as Carly's stifled chuckle came out from the other end of the line. "The next day, she has to dress up like a clown. On the same day, Freddie has to go to school in a pink shirt and rainbow suspenders."

No one spoke. Everyone was silent, absorbing the news. Carly was the first to react, bursting into a sudden fit of laughter. Sam stared at the phone with a bewildered expression, and Shelby chews her lower lip to avoid laughing along with her. Soon, she was done and calmed down from her unexpected laughing fit.

"Sorry," she apologized, but her tone suggested otherwise, because Shelby could still hear the smile in her voice. "It's just too funny!"

"Carls, it's not funny," Sam snapped, burying her head in her hands. "I'm _not_ going to wear a banana costume. What I _will_ do is use Freddie's nerd skills to track this low-life, crazy chick down and break her face." All of a sudden, Freddie's voice was at the other end of the line.

"Sorry Sam," he said gravely, "But I can't track down someone on iCarly. Not without the AV Club's help and they won't help me no matter what."

Shelby had to smile to myself as Sam pounded her head on the frosty table, groaning as she reluctantly lifted her head. "It's like we're in an episode of _Zane 202_." She laughed, remembering the old episodes of that show, especially the one where Zane accidentally pushed a clown out the window. Shelby turned to Sam and patted her back comfortingly, in a mocking way. She pushed her off and Shelby laugh harder.

Sam crossed her arms and gave Shelby a menacing death glare, and she calmed down for her sake. Shelby brought the phone back up to her mouth, in a safe distance."So, now what do we do?" She asked, and an achingly long silence occurred. She waited patiently, until Freddie sighed and finally gave up.

"I guess I'll have to buy rainbow suspenders," he said in defeat, and Shelby found her smiling amusedly. Sam sighed as well, giving up. "Me too, I'll have to buy a clown suit and a banana costume. The moment I find this random chick, I'll punch her so many times her friends won't recognize her when she goes to school." Sam got up, and Shelby rolled her eyes lightheartedly, still smiling.

"Easy girl," Shelby said, still stifling more laughs. She didn't know why she found it so amusing, but since Carly did too, she figured it wasn't that bad of a thing. Sam said goodbye and so did Freddie, and then both of them were off to buy their costumes. Carly and Shelby roared with laughter, and she clutched her stomach as she doubled over, still laughing.

"This is going to be a long week," Carly stated, and Shelby laughed in agreement as she wiped the forming tears in her eyes.

* * *

Carly walked into the Mitchell mansion the next day, carefully stepping on the marble floorboard. The butler led her to the living room, where Shannon was placing a banquet of lilies on the glass coffee table. She greeted her with a wave and a hello, and Carly gave her a smile in return. Shannon plucked her earrings out and led Carly up the staircase, careful not to touch the glass chandelier.

"Oliver, Carly's here!" Shannon exclaimed, cupping her mouth with her hand. Oliver dashed out of the room, looking annoyed but his expression softening as he sees Carly. She waved briefly as the both of them exchanged a semi-awkward hello, and Shannon eyeballed the both of them carefully before turning around and stepping down the staircase warily.

"Let me get straight to the point," Carly said, stepping forward. "Shannon says you're a super secret computer genius and I need your help." Oliver arched an eyebrow, but didn't deny Shannon's statement nor did he refuse to assist her. Instead, he walked forward, saying with an almost-smile, "As long as you never bring me back to Garina Lane."

Carly smiled politely, but inside her head was getting foggy and her insides were swirling at the horrible memory. She hated the memory of that place; it seemed fine overall, but the cold had scarred her. She wondered if she would ever be able to get over it and visit Garina Lane once again; maybe when summer started about the following week later. She shook the memory off, remembering her reason for coming here.

"So you really can help me track whoever sent those messages to the iCarly website?" Carly whispered as if it was some big secret. Oliver smiled cockily, and her inner dislike of his arrogance stirred up once again.

"Ask anyone, I'm the right guy for the job," he said, and Carly rolled her eyes in annoyance at how conceited and full of himself he sounded.

"You should be in the FBI," Carly said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Apparently, Oliver didn't catch that she was mocking him, because he began smiling excitedly at the idea. _Oh crap_, Carly thought, hating her for bringing it up.

"I'm thinking about it," he said, brushing his imaginary beard. Carly rolled her eyes again, stepping forward and pushing him forward as he grabbed her hands lightly and led her to the computer room to help her out. She felt her cheeks heat up as she realized he was still holding her hand subconsciously as he began clicking on the e-mail.

* * *

**Well, what did you think? It might seem a little confusing, but that's intentional. Like I said, it wasn't all that exciting, but hopefully the next few chapters will be. I think there's also enough room for more Carliver scenes. Oh, and special thanks to Hannah Cha for giving me the new nickname for Carly and Oliver.**

**I updated early because I have news: I'm going on a very long hiatus. I will be studying away for the entire summer, so I'll only be able to update after. Sorry you'll have to do months without this story, and if I get lucky, I'll totally be able to update whenever I can.**

**My reviewers: Geekquality, SeddierFTW, Kpfan72491, SeddieShortBus, Hannah Cha and Helga4ever.**


	18. Admiration

**a/n: **Hey guys. I know it's been forever since I last posted but I kind of lost a lot of inspiration over the course of the year. A lot of stuff has been going on and a lot of people have left this website, people I grew very fond of over time. It was a hard decision to continue, and I feel like no one will see this, but I'm deciding to do this anyway. No matter what, I'm gonna continue this. Because I promised I would. So I hope you enjoy this. I truly am sorry for not updating for almost two years. Like said, a lot of stuff has happened. Enjoy :)

**Chapter 18: Admiration**

* * *

Freddie never knew how truly gifted Sam was until that moment where he sat, alone by himself, watching her practice the routine with Jack.

He always knew she had talent, ever since he saw the cut of Sam's dance routine with Ernie a few years ago, but he never knew how truly advanced she was, especially for her age. Sam was only seventeen, yet she moved with the experience and technique that was usually only obtained by those beyond her years. Her skills astounded him as he watched her practice with Jack. She held him in such a gentle and loving way that Freddie had to blink several times. She seemed emotionally weak and exposed, as if every facade she had placed up shivered up and vanished. It felt like he was looking right into her soul, examining every single scar tissue in her life.

The pair moved in tune with the placid music that played in the background.

_High up above or down below._

She spun on the heel of her foot, moving along the wooden floor, her feet bouncing like running water, smooth and elegant and beautiful. He watched her, eyes twinkling, his attention exclusively hers. She lifted her hands in the air slowly as she proceeded to twirl.

"Freddie," Jack called out, snapping him out of his trance. "This is where you come in." He nodded concurringly, walking shakily towards her, but Sam was still deep in her thoughts, her ocean gaze far away. He held her closely, as she twirled under his grasp, her face inches away from his. They proceeded to move as one, mirroring each other, dancing in utter sync.

Freddie had, although never admittedly, always viewed Sam as pretty, like every other guy in the grade. It was the norm. She was rather tall, had long, cascading blonde hair and bright blue eyes, flawless skin and a contagious smile, but now, he saw how beautiful she really was. And in that moment, he dipped her and held her close, feeling electricity running through his veins. _Sam, Sam, Sam._ It was a moment of adoration and awe and appreciation that he was almost sure he would never feel again. _She's not like other girls._

The last note of the song played far too quickly.

She stared at him, wordless, and it took him a second to realise her eyes were watery. Her golden locks glistened as she quickly looked away.

"Sam, Freddie," breathed Jack, albeit breathlessly. "You guys have to show that kind of emotion on the stage of the actual day. The judges will be amazed, for sure."

Sam said nothing, but breathed in heavily, and nodded silently at Jack. Instantly, she grabbed her multi-coloured bag and left the room, leaving Freddie thunderstruck.

* * *

Sam narrowed her eyes as she watched Irina, Hilary and Clair all enclose in a circle. One by one, each girl whipped out mini manicure kits from their handbags and colourful matching hair pins, and then proceeded to paint each other's nails and braid each other's hair. Sam glowered at them from her isolated spot, crossing her arms. To her, they looked like the stuck-up girls from middle school that she and Carly loathed, whose names she conveniently forgot.

"Sarah, Jessica, and Lenah clones, anyone?" Carly spoke, echoing Sam's thoughts, as she entered the waiting room with a bag of cookies and cupcakes. She plunked herself beside Sam and wordlessly handed the cupcakes and cookies to Sam. She felt her heart flutter with happiness.

"You have _no_ idea," she responded, munching on a particularly tasty red velvet cupcake. Carly searched around the room, furrowing her trimmed eyebrows.

"Where is Freddie?" asked Carly, sticking her finger in the whip cream, and sucking it off. Sam stiffened at the mention of his name.

"Haven't seen him all day. I guess I have to do the registering for him. If I get his measurements wrong, that's his problem for not turning up." Sam replied nonchalantly, tossing bubblegum into her mouth and proceeding to chew it openly. Carly continued to lick the chocolate cupcake nervously, waiting for Oliver to arrive with his laptop. A shadow emerged, and Carly immediately lowered her cupcake, expecting to see her friend in all his skater hair glory. But alas, it was Freddie, looking absolutely tired and completely drained.

"Jack is inhuman," he declared. Sam snickered as she leaned on the wall, crossing her arms and tugging on the uneven strings of her red hoodie.

"Tough day at the studio?" asked Carly. He groaned loudly, plopping beside her and rolling his sleeves.

"Tell me about it," he complained. "I don't know why I have to go to every one of your individual rehearsals with Jack, but you don't have to go to mine. And I don't know why he feels the need to make me practice my kneeling five hundred times. If my ankles could talk, they'd have a colourful vocabulary."

"Oh grow a pair," she replied. "Jack tortures all of his first-time students. He'll loosen up to you after a few rounds." She smiled wickedly, which could only mean Jared would continue to torture Freddie until the end of the showcase. He sighed dejectedly as he grabbed a handful of cupcakes and proceeded to drown his sorrows in every single one of them.

_Where is Oliver?_ Carly wondered as she munched on another cupcake.

* * *

"Sam Puckett," called Madison Miller, the head organizer for the event. "You're next."

"You were great," complimented Jack, smiling proudly at Sam. She gave him a modest half-smile as she exited the stage. "But," he continued. "You'd definitely be ten times better if you hadn't quit dancing when you did, though." Her composed gaze quickly transformed to a glower, making it clear he was moving into sensitive areas.

"I don't mean to offend you," inquired Jack. "I'm just stating the facts."

"You know why I had to quit," she murmured. He raised an eyebrow. Sam gritted her teeth and felt her muscles tighten. "And you know I don't like to talk about it."

"Why did you decide to come back?" He asked, and he looked anxious, like it was at the tip of his tongue. Sam opened her mouth to answer, but once Freddie arrived at the scene, she closed it shut. She knew Freddie would back out of the WSDC once he learned of the real reason she left, and that was the last thing she needed right now.

Carly paced back and forth outside, waiting for Oliver to arrive, but after forty-five minutes, he was a complete no-show. Quickly, she whipped out her phone and instantly dialled his number, waiting for a response. All five calls went straight to voicemail.

_Something's not right._

And while Carly panicked at the dance studio, Oliver sat at home, in his bedroom, staring disbelievingly at his computer laptop,

"_No way_," he breathed in terror, feeling absolutely astounded.

* * *

**a/n: Sorry for the insane wait! Please review you guys, it would mean a lot to me :)**


	19. Brokenness

**a/n: **Hello my beautiful reviewers. Thank you so much for sticking with this story. So sorry I haven't updated in a while, this month has been absolutely _hectic _at the least. Anyways, here's the new chapter! Enjoy :D

**Chapter 19: Brokenness**

* * *

Oliver gaped profoundly at his laptop, replaying the scene of events over and over again.

He stood there, stunned, feeling completely unsure of what to do. The teenage boy pondered on his options, but he still found it impossible to process what he had just seen. In front of his eyes, he saw his beloved cousin chatting lively with Irina Bradshaw. The two girls seemed secretive, as they spoke in low, hushed tones, and looked around their shoulder every minute. Their expressions were serious and enigmatic, and it was obvious that the conversation they were having did not include any of the members of One Direction or the new Heidi Leaner song. It was not your average girl-talk session. At that very moment, Shannon sashayed into his cerulean room like she always did, plopped on his sofa like she always did, and threw her pom-poms on the carpeted floor.

"Why?" he whispered, his voice uneven. Shannon barely looked up from her low-fat yoghurt cup and plopped her long legs on the glass table.

"Why what?" she answered dispassionately, sticking her pointy nose into the cold, sugary pleasure that melted in her mouth. She felt her tongue burn with pleasure as she took another scoop of the delicious yoghurt, relishing the sweetness. It had been a good day for her; cheerleading practice had gone smoothly and she had gotten the last low-fat raspberry-strawberry yoghurt on the rack. Oliver tore his blue irises away from the laptop, staring straight into Shannon's green eyes. She blinked owlishly.

"Why are you working with Irina Bradshaw?" he demanded, which caused her to drop her spoon instinctively into the cup. Her bright eyes bulged and her heartbeat raced.

"What?" she exclaimed, suddenly feeling agitated. Oliver remained silent for a while and simply turned over to replay a low-quality video of Irina and Shannon's secret encounter in the middle of the Parker-Nichols auditorium. She gulped, feeling her stomach clench tightly. Oliver's hard stare bore into her head and she felt emotionally exposed in front of him. "I ask again, why her? Don't you know she's a suspect in blackmailing Sam and Freddie?"

"_Of course_ I know," responded Shannon. "But that doesn't mean she is the blackmailer. Haven't you heard the saying 'innocent until proven guilty'? Well, I say Irina's innocent. And we're just having a little bit of girl talk." Oliver's bright blue eyes narrowed in on her.

"Look, Oliver, I love you, but you have to trust me," reasoned Shannon, walking over as nonchalantly as she possibly could. He sighed once more, turning back to his computer screen and typing ferociously. "I don't know what the blackmailer has on those two, but whatever it is, it has to big news. I suspect Carly hasn't informed you on Sam and Freddie's little secret, am I right?" Oliver's silence confirmed her suspicion. "Then why are you so insistent on this? I don't know anything about the situation, but even if I did, I'd want no part in it. It's best to not get involved."

"I already am," he responded. "And you befriending Irina pulls you into the pool of suspects as well. You are aware of this, aren't you? If Carly, Sam and Freddie decide to make this a police case, then you're going down." Shannon shrugged and plopped down on his comfortable sheets.

"All I know is, whatever they're hiding must be something serious," she said. "Something they wouldn't want anyone outside of their exclusive little trio to know. And if it's borderline illegal, then, well, I don't think the police will be involved in it, considering Sam's record with them." Shannon resigned herself to this idea and grabbed a spoon, digging into the delicious, sugary mush of yoghurt. Oliver looked lost in his spiral of thoughts, and Shannon sighed deeply, tugging on his sleeve.

"What they don't know won't hurt them," she insisted. "Besides, it's not like Carly, Sam or Freddie are gonna find out, right?" She raised her yoghurt cup once more and proceeded to have more scoops. "My newfound friendship with Irina Bradshaw should just stay between us. We don't need them getting the wrong idea."

"Or the right one," murmured Oliver, thankfully too low for Shannon to hear.

* * *

Today was one of those dreadful days in which Jared was anything but happy.

It was a day where Jared wasn't his lovably happy-go-lucky, lively, peppy self that Sam grew accustomed to over the years. The days when the skies in Garina Lane seemed darker, harsher, and Jared's sparkling emerald eyes was filled with a world of glassy pain that Sam always chose to ignore. She knew he went through a lot of obstacles and hardships, but she always believed that he had gotten over that. Today was a harsh reminder that Jared was only human, that he had feelings, and that his broken heart was still bound and broken. And seeing him in his sorry state, Sam flinched with sadness for her friend, but she also hated seeing him so miserably broken because it reminded her of her own brokenness. It reminded her of her wounded heart and ego, and it was in that moment that she herself realized that she was only human as well, she had feelings, and the scariest part of it all was the fact that perhaps her own heart may never heal.

Something inside her shattered with these thoughts, and Sam carefully looked at Jared as he stood in front of her. "Jared," she whispered, her tone uncharacteristically gentle. "Why did Garina Lane end up the way it did?" The silence was achingly long, and for a moment, Sam began to panic that the topic she had chosen was far too sensitive for Jared's liking. She knew it was a touchy subject, she knew it would evoke feelings of discomfort and pain, but she had to know. She wanted so desperately to understand why Jared always spoke so bitterly of this place, why people left, and why he chose to stay. After what seemed like years, Jared finally spoke. His voice was shaky and uneven, and Sam could tell that he was holding back tears.

"It's always about the money," he mumbled mirthlessly, carefully collecting the smashed pieces of wine glasses that were scattered on the floor.

Sam sighed deeply, leaning against the brick wall and kicking her feet up in the air, blinking owlishly. She observed Jared; watched as his bright eyes glimmered with sparks of regret and sadness. Sam leaned over and placed a comforting hand on Jared's shoulder. She felt protective over him, which was mostly because he had been some sort of a father figure towards her for the past few months. He made her feel safe, the way her father never did. And for that, she cherished and welcomed him, and, and this particular moment, sympathized with him. And it took a lot to evoke sympathy from her.

"Is that why half of Garina Lane left?" she asked.

He nodded silently. He faced Sam and, slowly and subtly, began telling her the town's story; how it was far from wealthy, but was run by honest leaders, but the residents refused to cooperate. It was a small town, tiny, even, but it surprisingly well. The wealthy were stingy, however, and refused to donate, and were dishonest, scamming the residents one by one to acquire more wealth. Eventually, the middle-class and the poor grew tired of being mistreated by them and all left, one by one, some to Seattle, others to another town, and only the wealthy stayed, but only for a while. Now, it was just Jared and a few others with no other place to go. He spoke carefully, quickly, and tried to play it off as if it was nothing less than a bedtime story. But it was not. It was a huge part of his adulthood that left him scarred and pained. Sam watched Jared as he spoke, and when he finally stopped talking, she sighed.

"What about the leaders?" she asked. He heaved a long sigh.

"I'm the only one left," he said. "I used to lead this town, I used to be wealthy, I used to be happy. Now I'm cleaning up after the mess those under me left." Jared laughed mirthlessly, his glassy eyes revealing a world of pain Sam wished she never encountered. He stared at her. "You have talent, Sam. Your drawings are beautiful, rare, opinionated, and so extravagantly raw. You _need_ to share them with the world. You draw what happened, what could have happened, and what might have been. It brings me to tears every time I see it and I just can't bear to look away."

"No, I don't!" she protested, alarmed, the ferocity of her tone shocking him. All previous feelings of sympathy and care quickly vanished and was replaced by anger. "I don't need to share them with anyone. I meant them for our eyes and our eyes only." She calmed down for a bit, and stared into Jared's eyes. "Why do you want me to show everyone what I drew?"

"I don't know, Sam," whispered Jared gently. "I guess I just wish people could see what this place has become."

* * *

Sam did not bother to walk home that night, she was too emotionally and physically drained for that.

Instead she took the bus, and silently walked to the Bushwell Plaza, Jared's painful words ringing in her ears. As she approached Carly's apartment, she jiggled the key into the keyhole, and unlocked the door. She stepped into the empty, dark apartment, and realized that both Carly and Spencer still had not come home from their restaurant dinner. Sadly, she sighed, and plopped on the couch, turning on the TV and staring blankly at the screen, making it her priority to re-watch the first season of _Girly Cow_. Five minutes into the episode, Sam heard the sound of the apartment door opening. She lazily tore her crystal eyes off the TV screen, expecting to see her hazel-eyed, brown-haired best friend, but saw Freddie instead.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, as he walked into the apartment. He sighed, shaking his head as he dragged the technical equipment through the wooden entrance.

"Carly wanted me to do some updates on the website," he explained aimlessly, as he continued to make his way to the indoor elevator. "She and Spencer are stuck in traffic, so she wanted me to start without her. I don't suppose you want to help." His words were mumbled and he didn't even bother to glance in her direction. Sam growled disapprovingly. Of course she had no intention of helping, but he didn't have to be so crude about it. Especially after the night she had. Instead of making a fuss, Sam chose to overlook it, placing her head on the silk cushion and staring at the television. The episode was relatively boring and predictable, and Sam guessed that it was because of the amount of time she had watched it. Tiredly, she switched to the next episode. The seasons blurred and before she knew it, the clock stroke midnight. She heard Freddie cautiously stepping down the wooden staircase and turned around to face him. "You have any idea where Carly is?" she asked. He yawned and nodded.

"She's not coming home tonight," he said. "She and Spencer decided to take a left turn at their aunt's house and crash there for the night. Besides, it's not like the thunderstorm is going to clear up anytime soon. So might as well stay somewhere else." He dusted off his equipment and plopped down beside her. "I haven't seen this show in years." She raised an eyebrow and he beckoned to the television screen. She nodded.

"Ah," she said. "Well, you're not missing out on much. Girly and Sparky left the show so there's nothing much left."

"No surprise," he marveled. "It's always the best characters that leave."

Afterwards,the two of them resigned to sitting on the couch in comfortable silence. The both of them were too tired to exchange harsh words and sarcastic glances, so they settled for simply appreciating each other's company. At that moment, they were nothing more than two lost souls, lying on each other, and resting. It was a long, tiring, emotional week, which Sam knew would just persist until the end of the competition. Nothing in her life had been peaceful from the very start anyway. Freddie sighed, his hand subconsciously resting on Sam's. The blonde flinched instinctively, but the warmness of his hand was sweet. It's been long since Sam has experienced a moment this innocently tender; all her previous relationships were painful and emotionally-draining, fiery and passionate. Sam and Freddie are passionate, wild with anger and fury when they're around each other, but they can be sweet and subtle, and in that moment, she felt comforted. He did not speak, he did not move, he simply rested his hand on hers, and she liked it. It comforted her in some way, something she never understood. Freddie never did go back to his apartment that night. Instead, he and Sam stayed in the Shay household, resting against each other, and eventually falling asleep. Freddie's arm was tentatively wrapped around Sam's shoulder and she breathed and slept easily that night.

The next day, Sam awoke to an empty pillow, and she sighed. She looked around the apartment in search for Freddie, but he was nowhere to be found. She gritted her teeth and breathed slowly. Carly walked down the staircase holding a hot cup of coffee and smiled warmly when she saw that her friend had woken up. "Hey, sleepy head," she smiled, her hazel eyes lightening as she sat beside Sam. "Here's your coffee. Two sugars." She smiled, almost in a self-congratulatory way, but her smile instantly vanished once she took a proper look at Sam. "Sam, are you okay?"

"Fine," she replied roughly through clenched teeth, feeling her heart ache. "Perfectly fine."

* * *

**a/n: I finally hit 170 reviews. Thank you guys. You are amazing. **


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